To Be A Master
by ShadowYashi
Summary: Join Ryan Summers on his quest to be the best he can be! His journey through Kanto has everything a starting trainer could ask for, travel companions, tough rivals and unplanned run in's with bad guys! Beta needed. Details in Chapter 11.
1. Bulbasaur! I Choose You!

**Chapter 1**

All was silent in the cozy town of Pallet, the moon was shining high and brightly in the sky, the pale luminescent glow contrasted greatly against the midnight blue star filled backdrop. It was a warm crisp night and there was not even a hint of a cloud in the sky, such a peaceful quiet, that not even the nocturnal Pokémon made much of a sound as they went about their nightly business. But even though on the outside all seemed well in Pallet Town, on the inside of one particular house, a ten year-old boy was twisting and turning restlessly in his bed, unable to sleep due to his excitement. Tomorrow was the day, _the_ official day that he, Ryan Summers would become a Pokémon Trainer. Becoming a Pokémon Trainer was practically every 10 year-old's dream! It's like a rite of passage, from a kid into adulthood. Once you got your Pokémon, you were officially ready to hit the road and start your journey and no one could stop you, not even your parents! "Tomorrow is gonna be _**my**_ day. I'll show Mom and I'll become a real strong trainer. Heck, I'll become so strong, that I'll be able to beat Dad and Jelly with my eyes closed!"

"You won't get a chance to beat your Father or Jelly, let alone make it out this house tomorrow if you don't go to sleep Ryan!" Said brunette winced slightly at his mother's harsh shouting and then smiled before peering out the window located beside his bed, his gaze swept briefly over the quiet fields of Pallet Town, before they reached the giant turbine that connected to the laboratory that doubled as a home for the infamous Professor Oak "I wonder which Pokémon to choose. . . maybe something feisty, like Charmander or quick like Squirtle! But then again, Bulbasaur's are pretty well rounded in terms of personality, the last thing I need is a starter Pokémon who won't listen or tries to attack me..." briefly his thoughts were plagued by images of a snickering and menacing looking Jelly before he shuddered and brushed those thoughts away "or maybe I'll get lucky like that one kid and get something cool, like a Pikachu! I hear he's doing pretty good, I think his name was Ash Ketchup or something." Shrugging unsurely to himself Ryan continued to gaze outside, until a twinkle in the sky caught his interest, something dark and fast shot by and had he blinked Ryan would've missed it.

His blue eyes widened and he released an amazed gasp "Whoa! A shooting star! I'll make a wish!" Closing his eyes and bowing his head, Ryan wished on the star, he wished that his journey would be filled with all types of action, adventures and wonders and he wished that he would make it far during the league and people would recognize what an awesome trainer he would soon be. Grinning Ryan opened his eyes and then sighed "well, I better get to bed. I hope my wish come true!" With that said 10 year old Ryan Summers crawled back under his Pikachu printed covers and drifted into a dreamless sleep, unaware of the life changing events that would soon unfold, not thanks to his wish but thanks to a little entity known as plot, I mean fate.

The next morning for Ryan was a fairly pleasant, if not exhilarating. His excitement was barely contained as he rushed through his daily morning ritual, having woken up about 10 minutes earlier than his set time. Ryan was raring and ready to go, he dressed simply in a comfortable long-sleeved red hooded shirt with a graphic black Pokéball emblem etched on the middle of his chest and a pair of blue jeans. He slipped on his socks and blue and white running shoes before reaching up and tightening the knot of the blue and white Pokéball dotted bandana around his forehead to keep annoying stray hairs out of his face while shrugging on his blue backpack.

"Okay mom, I'm ready! How do I look?"

Exiting from the kitchen of their two story home, a beautiful brown haired green eyed woman appeared, dressed in an orange shirt and some slacks, apron tied at her waist and wooden spoon in hand, her eyes ran appreciatively over her son's form "You look great dear! Just as handsome as your father when we were young." A wistful smile broke out on her face as she recalled the days of her youth "and boy was he handsome!" Ryan made a face at his mother "eww mom, do you have to use that kind of tone?" She grinned in response and moved forward, grabbing the boy in a hug, ruffling his brown locks "silly boy, when you get my age you'll be using that tone around your children too as you think about how cute your wife was, but I suggest you get out this house and get to Professor Oak's lab before your late son."

"Mom, quit messing up my hair!" Ryan pulled away from his giggling mother, fixing his already messy hair and kissed her briefly on the cheek before leaving the house "I'll promise to call when I can! Bye mom!" The trip to Professor Oak's lab was short and uneventful, mostly due to the fact that Ryan practically ran all the way there. He paused at the door of his lab to catch his breath and then knocked once before entering, he slowly pushed the door open and peered inside "Hello. Hellooo. Anyone here?" Blinking, Ryan glanced around the lab until he spotted three Pokéballs situated on the large container for the starters "Oh cool!" Excitedly, Ryan walked over to the Pokéball holder and studied the three balls, beneath them was the labels for which Pokémon was housed in each ball, from left to right, they were Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander respectively. He stared at the ball curiously before gently poking the one that had Charmander inside it "Hmm, I wonder if I'm the first one here..." mumbling this aloud to himself, Ryan wasn't actually expecting someone to answer "Yes, you are actually. Isn't that great, you get first pick at these three great starters!"

Startled, Ryan moved away from the Pokéballs and whirled around to meet the grinning faces of Professor Oak and his assistant Tracey Sketchit. "Uh… Hi Professor" grinning sheepishly, he waved at the two and Oak smiled "Hello, you must be Ryan, correct?"

"Yes sir, I'm here to get my Pokémon and start my very own journey!"

"I see. Do you have an idea on which starter you'd like to choose?"

"Well…" Ryan rubbed his arm as he mulled over the question "kinda... I think." Professor Oak's smile just widened before he walked over to the containment unit for the Pokéballs "well then, perhaps a small sample can help you decide" tapping the release button on each of the balls, the three infamous starters of Kanto appeared from their Pokéballs and glanced up in unison at Ryan, who smiled back slightly.

"Squirtle, Charmander, Bulbasaur." The trio turned their heads towards Professor Oak as he addressed them "This is Ryan and he's going to be taking one of you along with him to start his Pokémon journey." The trio shared a glance before two of them made a face at Ryan. Charmander was full of disbelief, Squirtle had a look practically similar to Charmanders and Bulbasaur just stared, cocking its head to the side curiously at the boy "Bulbasaur..."

"What's with those faces?" Ryan frowned sourly at the stares that he was given, before he stood at his full height and rubbed the bridge of his nose cockily "I'll be an awesome trainer one day and two of you are gonna be real sorry that you didn't wanna join me!" Charmander shrugged and Squirtle scoffed, brushing his comments off as though they were nothing, Ryan grit his teeth in annoyance, eyes glaring at the two nonchalant Pokémon "why you little…"

"Bulba! Bulbasaur!" Before Ryan could finish his sentence, Bulbasaur nudged his leg; blinking Ryan glanced down at the green Pokémon, whom in return smiled back up at him "Bulbasaur!" Professor Oak chuckled and recalled Squirtle and Charmander "I believe Bulbasaur wants to go with you Ryan."

"Eh? You wanna come with me Bulbasaur?"

"Bulba."

"Well, you do seem a lot more nicer than Charmander and Squirtle" He gave the seed Pokémon a toothy grin "Bulbasaur" the grass type returned the grin and Oak strode forward, handing Ryan Bulbasaurs Pokéball, along with five shrunken ones and a dark blue Pokédex, Ryan quickly pocketed both items and grinned at the Professor "Thanks a lot Professor Oak! C'mon Bulbasaur, let's get going!"

"Bulbasaur!" The grass starter quickly ran after its new trainer, following the boy down the lab's steps and straight towards the outskirts of Pallet Town, both completely unaware of the event that would soon change their lives, for either the better, or the worse.

**x-X-x**

All was nice quiet on Route 1, but that was soon about to change. Ryan and Bulbasaur walked casually down the route, the silence shared between them comforting and pleasant, but as the old saying goes, silence is meant to be broken. By the growling of one Ryan Summers empty stomach "Oh yeah, I skipped out on breakfast this morning because I was so anxious hehe," chuckling sheepishly to himself Ryan paused and shrugged off his back pack, digging through the bag until he found what he was searching for "haha success!" Ryan pulled out a medium sized bento that was filled with a small variety of foods and grinned, but his eyes were on one certain prize.

"Thank you mommy!" Reaching into the bag, he pulled out half a sandwich, it was a crustless beauty filled with lettuce and tomato, with a nice amount of mayo smeared on both slices of bread, while in the middle of it all was his mom's infamous Tonkatsu, pork cutlet, this piece of meat was something Ryan would die for and it's by far one of his favorite foods "Mm, I can't wait to take a bite outta this, it looks so yummy!"

Rubbing his stomach, Ryan was getting ready to chow down on the sandwich, but his gaze fell to Bulbasaur, who was staring up at him with a look akin to a hungry kitten "ah. . . " feeling guilty and somewhat embarrassed the boy scratched at his cheek briefly before lowering himself to the ground, sitting Indian style and placing his bag slightly behind him. Ryan then ripped the half in half and held the piece out to Bulbasaur, who summoned his vines and grabbed at it, sniffing the food cautiously before taking a small bite out of the corner, Bulbasaur chewed for a few moments before swallowing and Ryan had watched this all with a curious stare "well..." he looked expectantly at Bulbasaur "what do you think?"

"Bulbasaur." Bulbasaur nodded in approval and then took another bite, this one larger than before, out of its sandwich. Ryan grinned at this and followed suit, taking a large bite out of his own half "my mom makes some of the best tonkatsu around! If its one thing mom can do, it's make a mean meal, I think she packed me some leftovers and stuff, so we should have enough food to last us a few days."

With that said, Ryan stuffed the last bit of his sandwich into his mouth and swallowed it with a satisfied smile, he glanced at Bulbasaur who had also just finished its slice as well, smiling slightly Ryan blindly reached into his bag, to grab the other half of the sandwich so they could share it, but for some reason he seemed to be gripping nothing but air. Whirling around, he peered past his bag and noticed that his bento was flipped over and some of its contents were spilled onto the ground, while the rest trailed off into the bushes. Ryan's eyes widened as he eyed his now destroyed lunch and dinner, he turned back around and looked to his starter, whom was completely oblivious.

"Hey. . . Bulbasaur?"

"Bulba?"

"I think we just got robbed."

Bulbasaur just blinked slowly and tilted its head in confusion "Saur?"

"BulbaBulbaSaur!"

"Ow! Ow! Ouch! Cut that out! I said I was sorry and that I was gonna get the food back! Now stop hitting me!" Bulbasaur muttered to itself before stopping its assault on Ryan with Vine Whip, after the boy had told it someone had snatched the remainder of their food, the hungry Pokémon took its irritation out on the only available pummeling source, Ryan. Rubbing his stinging arms, where Bulbasaur had whacked him, he could feel the harsh whips despite the slight thickness of his shirt, Ryan pouted slightly at Bulbasaur "Bulbasaur. . ." the walking bulb grumbled low in its throat at the thought of having their food stolen.

Ryan laughed nervously at the glare his Bulbasaur was giving him "Don't worry Bulbasaur, I'll get the food back, promise!" He motioned for Bulbasaur to follow him and lead the seed Pokémon through the bushes that were behind them. They were following the trail of food that was left behind, with Bulbasaur stopping every now and then to eat whatever had fallen to the ground and didn't get too dirty, much to Ryan's chagrin, the boy wasn't as bold as his four legged companion, plus there was that whole five second rule, but considering that the path was littered with dirt and grass that people walked along daily, he'd rather just let Bulbasaur eat it, at least the Pokémon couldn't get sick or die from it.

"See, tolja we'd find em'! Look at the crumbs, they lead right to that no good food thief." Ryan grinned and stopped in front of the bushes that the thief was behind and then he crouched down in front of Bulbasaur, motioning for the seed Pokémon to not make a sound, he pulled back the bushes and opened his mouth, ready to yell at the person for stealing their food, but then he froze at the last second upon gazing at what had stolen their goods.

It was a Rattata, there was nothing special or even interesting about it, it just looked like a regular Rattata, with purple colored fur and a cream belly and cream paws, short whiskers, indicating it was female, large red eyes and big white teeth and a purple tail that curled near the tip. The only thing that stuck out the most on this nondescript rodent, was the bruises on its face, as it looked like it had been through hell and back, large chucks of dirt caked the mouse's rumpled fur, turning it into a dingy purple and there were a few noticeable cuts and some nasty looking bite marks as well as well, as though it had been struggling in a fight or something. The rattata was currently gnawing away greedily at one of the sandwiches his mother had packed for him, unaware that he and Bulbasaur were watching, and it wasn't until she finished off the last bit of the sandwich that Rattata noticed Ryan and Bulbasaur peering curiously at her.

Stiffening, she whirled around and bared her fangs at the duo, backing away slowly from the boy and his companion "Hey… easy girl, we're not gonna hurt you. Right Bulbasaur?" Ryan raised his hands in a defensive gesture and Bulbasaur nodded "Bulbasaur." The rattata narrowed her eyes and backed away some more, tail standing erect while her eyes cautiously and fearfully darted between the two before taking off towards some bushes to the right of it. Ryan and Bulbasaur shared a confused glance before shrugging and gathering what little food they could, that wasn't half eaten or damaged or littered in Route 1 germs "well, that was really weird" Bulbasaur nodded in agreement before Ryan shrugged "Oh well, let's get going Bulbasaur, we've got a long walk ahead of us if we're gonna make it to Viridian City before the afternoon."

"Bulbasaur!"

"But I wonder, what happened to that Rattata..."

**

* * *

A/N: Greetings readers! I'm Yashi and this right here is a rewrite of my previous story entitled The Next Journey. I'm rewriting the story, because, the previous one I believe was horrible, not well planned out and too rushed for my liking, but hopefully this rewrite will make up for it, as I'm going to pace myself this time and not rush into everything. After all good writing takes time, patience and proper planning right? Right. Well this story will not only follow the overly used cliche journey to be a ****Pokémon**** Master fanfic's on this site, I love journey fics, their some of my favorite! But it will also make continuous references and call backs to everyone's favorite pair Ash and Pikachu and the TR Trio.**

** This is set, while Ash is off in another region, the current region, being Isshu at the moment. So our protagonist is going to be dealing with the results of starting a journey after Ash Ketchum and dealing with the problems he might or might not have left behind, along with his own problems, because when you're semi important in the Pokémon Universe, bad and or unlucky things are sure to happen to you, even if you don't want it to. Will Ash and the protagonist ever meet? If I can help it, no and they'll probably never see each other, but Ryan might run into a Pokémon Ash has released or left for training, but that's about it. Romance? Yeah it'll be here, but this is more focused on his friendship and bonds with his Pokémon, you'll see. I also might make some sequels, mentally, I have it all planned up to Hoenn and parts of Sinnoh, not sure how many chapters I want for each region, but for now, lets see if I can make it to Jhoto. Anyway, I hope all you reader's will enjoy this reboot!**

**Edits made on 2/2/11: Fixed up some grammatical issues and changed a bit of the conversation with his mother and Professor Oak's dialogue, and I made a slight change to Ryan's clothing.**


	2. Rattata to the Rescue!

**Chapter 2**

"Well, aside from losing most of our food, I say that this is turning out pretty good, right Bulbasaur?"

"Bulbasaur," he muttered, in an 'I guess' sort of tone, as they walked along the route. It had only been about 10 minutes, since they had encountered that beat up Rattata, who had darted off after eating their food and getting spooked just from looking at them. Ryan folded his arms behind his head and raised his eyes toward the sky "but I wonder what happened to the Rattata, it looked beat up pretty badly." Bulbasaur glanced briefly at him before facing forward once more, his eyes passing over the scenery as they walked, but the red eyed starter froze when a flash of brown and purple suddenly caught his interest "Bulba?" Bulbasaur blinked as he watched a group of Pidgey had formed a semi circle around their latest catch, poking and prodding curiously at what looked to be, the unconscious form of Rattata from earlier! The cluster of Pokémon were on the side of the road, not too far from where the duo stood now "Bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur turned to Ryan to get his attention, but the boy was lost in his own thoughts as he continued to walk, eyes still locked onto the sky above while his body moved on auto pilot "Saur..." Bulbasaur frowned thoughtfully, should it help? Or leave it there and let the Pidgey have at the thing for lunch.

Lunch. That's right, that Rattata had stolen their food not too long ago, Bulbasaur scowled at the thought, but then the scowl left his face and it turned into a thoughtful expression, the mouse had been hungry and who knows where it got all those bruises from, would it be right to just leave it there? Bulbasaur glanced back slightly, he and Ryan having just passed the mouse and birds in question "Bulbaa" Bulbasaur frowned and then made his decision "Bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur whirled around with a growl and charged at the unsuspecting flock Pidgey with an attack cry, they all scattered and fluttered back a bit, away from the unconscious mouse. There were five of them in total and the one in the middle stepped forward, that one must've been the leader "Bulbasaur! Bulba!" Bulbasaur took a step forward and glared at the leader, standing protectively in front of Rattata. Annoyed at Bulbasaur for interrupting its evaluation of its soon to be dinner, the lead Pidgey retaliated with Peck, fluttering angrily over to Bulbasaur and jabbing its beak at the bulb on his back.

"Saur!" Bulbasaur countered with Vine Whip, smacking the bird with enough force to send it skidding backwards Pidgey leered at Bulbasaur before attacking again with another Peck attack, hitting Bulbasaur repeatedly in the face "Bu-basaur!" Bulbasaur winced and responded with another Vine Whip attack, catching the bird in the breast and sending it backwards with a gasp. "Gee... gee... gee..." Pidgey panted lightly and glared at Bulbasaur, it then stood up and lifted one of its wings, pointing to the mouse "Gee! Pidgey gee gee pidgey!" Bulbasaur shook his head "Bulba bulbasaur," he then moved to shield Rattata directly out of the birds view, meeting the glaring Pidgey with a hard glare of his own "bulbasaur bulbasaur."

"Gee," Pidgey growled slightly and narrowed its eyes, before huffing and lowering its wing, taking a step backwards and turning towards the rest of its followers "Pidgey!" Pidgey flapped its wings twice and then took off into the sky, with the rest of the pidgey quickly following after, Bulbasaur then snorted at their departure and turned back to study the unconscious Rattata. Somehow, it looked worse than before. How long had it been like this, there were noticeable beak marks on her stomach where the birds had poked at it and even some scratch marks from their talons, some of the scratches were light, while others were deep, Bulbasaur could see little specks of blood lining the thin cuts "Bulbasaur..." Bulbasaur stared sadly at the Rattata before glancing around for his trainer, Ryan ever the oblivious was still walking at his even pace with his head towards the sky, sweat began to form on Bulbasaur's head, had the boy not even realized that his starter was gone and got into a tiny scuffle with another Pokémon?

Shaking his head, Bulbasaur used his vines to gently scoop up Rattata and then ran after Ryan "Bulbasaur!" He ran head first into the boy's leg, causing him to snap out of whatever daze he was in and blinked, glancing down at the Seed Pokémon "Huh? Oh hey Bulbasaur, what's... up?" Ryan trailed off into silence when he glanced at the familiar Rattata that Bulbasaur had carried, his blue eyes scanned the cuts and bruises she received and he bit his lip worriedly "We need to get this Rattata to a Pokémon Center, she doesn't look so good." Bulbasaur nodded and handed the mouse over to him, Ryan cradled Rattata gently in his arm, allowing her to rest at the crook of his elbow while they walked "where'd you find her Bulbasaur?" One of Bulbasaur's vines shot out and pointed in the direction they just left "You mean she was lying on the side of the road?" Bulbasaur nodded and Ryan slapped his forehead "how the heck did I miss that?" Bulbasaur rolled his eyes in response and if he were able to talk, he'd tell him that he was too busy lost in his own thoughts to pay attention.

"Oh well, that doesn't matter right now, what's important, is that we get this Rattata to the Pokémon Center in Viridian City." Bulbasaur nodded and they continued on their walk in silence, it isn't until Ryan and Bulbasaur are able to see the outline of Viridian City, that things had suddenly began to perk up and go wrong, for one thing Rattata woke up during their walk and was completely startled to find herself in the arms of a human, she retaliated with Shock Wave, shocking Ryan, literally and figuratively. But soon after she attacked, she wound up falling back in to unconsciousness, which was a good thing, Bulbasaur had laughed at Ryan's unwanted hairdo, for when Rattata shocked him his hair poofed up and stuck out so sharply, that it could've probably been used as a weapon and Ryan made a mental note the get back at Bulbasaur later. Then, as soon as they managed to make it past the sign that indicate Viridian City was just a few more miles ahead, a duo of annoying bullies and their Pokémon decides to block the way. There were a few people gathered around the area, mumbling to themselves and asking why these guys were blocking the way and how they needed to enter city.

"You can't enter the city, unless you pay a fine!"

"Yeah!"

"Charmander! Char!"

Ryan pulled out his Pokédex and scanned the Charmander "**Charmander**, _The Lizard Pokémon. A flame burns on the tip of its tail from birth. It is said that a Charmander dies if its flame ever goes out._"

After listening to his Pokédex, his eyes trailed over to the owners of said Pokémon and they certainly were a sight to behold. The taller of the two had short cropped silver hair and blue eyes, he wore a white button up elbow length sleeved shirt, it was unbuttoned and revealed a black beater underneath, along with some black slacks, around his left wrist were some thin silver bracelets. The other one had and outfit exactly similar to the other guy, except his outfit was inverted, with a black shirt, white beater, white slacks and black shoes. His hair was black and also cropped short, even his eyes were blue. They looked like a pair of reject Yin and Yang spokesman or something.

"Pay a fine! Since when? This route has always been free in the past!" Someone spoke up, from the group of people gathered, a brown haired man "Just who are you people?" The two men glanced at one another and then grinned.

"I'm Zek!" said the dark haired one.

"And I'm Reshi!" replied the silver haired one.

"And we're the Ramrom Brothers! So unless you wanna pass, you gotta pay the fine!" They spoke this last line together and stood tall, glaring at the group of people, while their Charmander stood in between them, arms crossed and glaring as well. Having heard enough of this, Ryan stepped forward "look Rek and Zeshi, I don't have time for this! I have an injured Pokémon here and we need to get to the Pokémon Center, so move it or lose it!" The Ramrom brothers looked livid, they glared at Ryan and got all up in his face "first off punk, its Zek and Reshi! Not Rek and Zeshi!" Zek yelled and Reshi spoke up "and secondly you gotta pay the fine, so you either pay up or get out!" Ryan grit his teeth and was about to tell them to battle him and should he win they'd have to let everyone pass, but in his arms, Rattata beat him to the punch, having been woken up due to all the shouting the mouse was thoroughly annoyed "R-Rattata!" she squirmed out of the shocked Ryan's arms and landed in front of Zek and Reshi, baring her teeth, the Ramrom brother's laughed at the Rattata while Ryan and Bulbasaur watched with wide eyes "You think your puny Rattata can stand up to us? It looks so weak all ready, this should be easy! Charmander, show this runt whose boss!" Charmander nodded and took a step forward, baring its own claws and teeth "Charmander use Em— huh! C-Charmander!" Before Reshi even had the chance to tell his Charmander to attack, Rattata had already knocked it out with Shock Wave "What! There's no way that puny rat could beat my Charmander!" At being called a rat, said Rattata growled again and used Shock Wave once more, this time on Zek and Reshi, the two brothers saw stars as Rattata lit them up with the powerful attack, once it was over they collapsed where they stood, smoking rising from their twitching bodies.

"Hey, thanks a lot kid." One of the spectators murmured, before the crowd that gathered dispersed and made their way towards Viridian City. "Whoa... that was cool," Ryan whispered in awe after watching Rattata totally own those jerks, before it turned into a cry of worry when the heavily panting mouse collapsed where she stood "Rattata!" Ryan ran over and picked the mouse up, cradling her in his arms once more, he turned to Bulbasaur "C'mon Bulbasaur, we gotta get to the Pokémon Center fast!" Bulbasaur nodded and the two ran as fast as they could to the Pokémon Center. "Nurse Joy! I need some help!" Ryan and Bulbasaur burst through the doors and handed the injured Pokémon over to the Nurse, who gasped was what she saw "what happened to her?"

"I don't know, me and Bulbasaur found her like this, can you help her?" Nurse Joy nodded and took the Rattata off Ryan's and handed the Pokémon over to her assistant Chansey, frowning thoughtfully "I see, Chansey, please take Rattata to the emergency room."

"Chansey!" The pink nurse Pokémon saluted at took Rattata away "we'll have her fixed up right away," Nurse Joy said, turning to Ryan, who sighed "That's good, thanks a lot Nurse Joy." Ryan then turned around and headed towards the video phone, deciding that since he was here, he would call his mother. With Bulbasaur in his lap, Ryan phoned home, the machine rang twice, before the familiar face of his mother popped up "Hey Mom!"

"Hi dear," she smiled at Ryan and then her gaze shifted down to Bulbasaur "oh, whose that cute little guy on your lap?" The Seed Pokémon flushed bashfully in response and gave a small wave "Bulbasaur." Ryan grinned "So, how've things been since I left?"

"Quiet. I've never had this much quiet time to myself, its great!"

"Ouch mom, that hurt." Ryan clutched at his heart and his mother stuck her tongue out playfully at him, there was silence for a beat, before Ryan spoke up again "Have you heard anything from Dad?" At the mention of Ryan's father, she paused "Pssh, that insufferable man. No, I haven't and frankly I hope I don't." She huffed and crossed her arms, a scowl forming on her face as she thought of Ryan's father "He hasn't contacted me in months! I bet that jerk is out there messing around and faking injuries so he could get some cute young nurse to baby him!"

Ryan felt a bead of sweat form on his head and he laughed nervously as his mother began to grumble about how his father probably forgot about them and ran off with some young girl "Aww mom, you know Dad would never do that..." he coughed and then added "Jelly would probably kill him if he did," at the mention of Jelly, Ryan's mother stopped her grumbling and then smiled. "That's right! Jelly wouldn't betray me! Good to know I can trust someone!"

"Hey! What about me?"

"What about you dear?" Ryan sighed and shook his head, while Bulbasaur stifled a snicker "Never mind mom, I should get going, I gotta register for the Pokémon League." With that said, Ryan bid his mother farewell and cut the link, he hung up the phone and leaned back in his seat "Jeeze, I wonder what exactly dad is doing that he can't even say hi to mom... she's gonna be livid when he gets back home" Ryan paused thoughtfully as a bead of sweat appeared at the side of his head "and I hope I'm not around when that happens, mom is super scary when she's angry."

"Bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur smiled up at Ryan, who smiled back in response before standing up "C'mon Bulbasaur, let's go get registered!"

"Saur!"

"Well Ryan, everything is all set and you are now officially registered for the Pokémon League" Nurse Joy handed Ryan back his blue Pokédex, which he fiddled with, scanning Bulbasaur and his moveset, before pocketing the device. "Thanks a lot Nurse Joy!" Ryan smiled and then stared at the pink haired woman "Hey Nurse Joy, how's that Rattata I bought in here earlier doing?" Nurse Joy gave him a thin smile "well, she's looking a lot better than when you bought her in, she seems to have suffered from numerous blows to the head, neck and back area, not to mention she seems to have been starved! Whoever her previous owner was sure did a number on her, that poor Rattata. I'm glad you managed to bring her to us when you did, who knows what would've happened if you didn't."

"Bulba bulbasaur" Bulbasaur muttered with a flat stare, but both trainer and the Nurse ignore him, since they had no clue what he said anyway.

"Well, I'm glad we were able to help, but we've gotta get going. C'mon Bulbasaur" Ryan motioned for his starter to follow him, which he did without word, but Nurse Joy faltered "y-your leaving Rattata here?" Ryan nodded "Yeah, I wasn't gonna keep her or nothing, I just wanted to get it some help and I know she'll be a lot better off in your hands, so thanks a lot Nurse Joy! See ya!" With that said Ryan and Bulbasaur exited the Pokémon Center and headed straight towards Viridian Forest, their next stop Pewter City.

**x-X-x**

"We are _not_ lost..."

"..."

"Bulbasaur..."

"Okay fine, so maybe we're a little lost!" Bulbasaur rolled his eyes and watched as Ryan folded his arms irritably whilst glancing around the forest, seeing nothing but trees. He was trying to figure out where they had gone wrong, they were doing fine when they first entered the place, following the signs and the dirt path and all, but then they hit that weird fork in the path and somehow wound up in an empty clearing "Maybe if we head this way, we might find a way out of here." Ryan was pointing to a clump of tree's facing east, Bulbasaur just sighed deeply, this wild guessing was going to do nothing but get them lost even further, what they needed was a map or a guide. Maybe if they were lucky, someone who was familiar with these parts could help them.

"Well, well, well, look what we've got here, a couple of bugs got lost in the forest." Bulbasaur frowned, perhaps he wished too soon and Ryan shared the frown with his Bulbasaur, he recognized those annoying voices and glared at where they were coming from beyond the foliage "Oh great, its Rek and Zeshi, the Nimrod Brothers."

There was a noticeable tick on Reshi's forehead while he stepped out from his cover behind a large tree and growled at Ryan "you dumb kid! Its Zek and Reshi! We're the _Ramrom_ Brothers! Get it right!" Ryan shrugged nonchalantly "eh, what's the difference?" Reshi growled and reached into his pants pocket, pulling out a Pokéball, while his brother, who had came out from his hiding spot, did the same "that's it, I've had it with you! Charmander I choose you!"

"Charmander Char!"

"Jolteon lets go!"

"Jolt!"

Jolteon was a fierce looking Pokémon with yellow spiked fur and a very short tail and a spiky white collar. Ryan pulled out his Pokédex and scanned the Jolteon "**Jolteon**,_ the Lightning Pokémon. When angered or frightened, the hairs on Jolteon's body become like needles that are fired at its opponents. It absorbs charged atoms and can produce 10,000 volts of electricity._" Ryan glanced at the two Pokémon and then at his lone Bulbasaur, two on one definitely wasn't fair but he didn't really have much of a choice, having a feeling that these two wouldn't let him escape without some sort of confrontation "what, are you guys so weak, that you have to team up to beat me?"

Zek snorted disbelievingly "Us, weak? As if! I don't see that puny half dead Rattata from before either punk." Zek sneered at Ryan "what, it ran away from you or something?" Ryan folded his arms and smirked smugly at the black haired bully "says the guy that got fried by said half conscious Rattata." Zek grit his teeth in response and pointed to Bulbasaur "Jolteon, use Pin Missile!" Jolteon gave a short bark, before the spines on its back began to glow and stand erect, the Lightning Pokémon shook its fur and several needles shot themselves at Bulbasaur, who jumped towards the side, without being told "good job Bulbasaur, now use Leaf Storm!"

"Bulbasaur!" The bulb on Bulbasaur's back was suddenly outlined in green and a cyclone of leaves appeared, twisting around the bulb briefly, before they were launched at Jolteon, hitting the electric type hard in the face "Jolt!" The spiky Pokémon grunted as it endured the attack "Charmander use Ember!" From its docile position slightly behind Jolteon, Charmander perked up and opened its mouth, releasing several orange pellets that flew at Bulbasaur "Bulbasaur dodge it!"

"Bulba!" Bulbasaur leaped out of the way just in time to avoid the deadly flame pellets "Tackle!" But sadly, could not dodge the mid-air tackle from Jolteon, this send Bulbasaur flying backwards, causing him to skid to a halt right in front of Ryan, who glanced at the Seed Pokémon worriedly "You alright Bulbasaur?" Bulbasaur nodded, not feeling injured in the slightest "alright great! Now Vine Whip!" Ryan pointed at Charmander and Bulbasaur's vines shot out, wrapping quickly around the lizard Pokémon, who struggled to get free "C-Chaarmander!"

"Jolteon, ThunderShock!"

"Use Charmander as a shield!"

Jolteon had attacked first, its body glowing yellow as a bolt of lightning shot itself at Bulbasaur, who used his vines to throw Charmander in the way of the oncoming attack, shocking the lizard instead of him "Chaa" Charmander twitched from his spot on the ground, little bit of electricity trailing along its orange form "Charmander!" Reshi cried out worriedly to his Charmander, who grunted before slowly standing back up, shaking off the effects of the shock, while Jolteon looked sheepishly at its partner "Jolteon!" Charmander gave the Lightning Pokémon a thumbs up, before glaring at Bulbasaur and Ryan "Chaar."

"Heh, we're doing pretty good, huh Bulbasaur?" Ryan noted and Bulbasaur nodded, they weren't doing bad for their first official battle, especially since the two Brothers were double teaming him. "Well, you won't be doing so good this time! No more games, alright Zek." Reshi turned to his brother who nodded and glared at Ryan "You might think your strong brat, but that's only cause we've been messing around with you. Prepare to be beaten! Jolteon use Pin Missile!" Jolteon grunted and shook its fur, causing several thin needles to come shooting out at Bulbasaur, who easily dodges this by jumping out of the way "Ha, you'll have to do better than that!" Reshi smirked viciously "Flamethrower Charmander, before it gets a chance to counter!"

"Chaarrrr!" Charmander opened its mouth and released a powerful red-orange flame, it hit Bulbasaur dead on, causing the seed Pokémon to cry out "Bulbasaur! Are you alright?" Ryan looked worriedly over to his Bulbasaur, who winced but slowly nodded "B-Bulbasaaa!" Bulbasaur cried out suddenly because a wall of flame erupted around it "Oh no, Bulbasaur!" That flamethrower attack had unfortunately burned Bulbasaur "Jolteon ThunderShock!" Jolteon fired off another bolt at Bulbasaur, which hit him full force this time "Bulbasaur!"

Bulbasaur groaned, shaking off the electricity but winced again when his burn struck. The seed Pokémon began panting, that burn was affecting him heavily, not to mention that ThunderShock was a force to be reckoned with "Heh" Reshi rubbed the bridge of his nose cockily "There's no way you can win now brat, you should just give up!" Reshi pointed at Bulbasaur "Now Jolteon, lets finish this! Tackle attack!"

"And Charmander you finish it with Ember!"

"Jolteon!" Jolteon began charging at Bulbasaur and was about to ram its head into his face, sending him flying so Charmander could hit him with Ember and finish Bulbasaur off, but a purple blur came flying a Jolteon, ramming the Lightning Pokémon in the side, effectively knocking the electric type off course in the middle of its tackle. Jolteon wound up tumbling and rolling until it hit a nearby tree stump "What the…" The spectator's and their Pokémon were clearly confused, even Charmander had stopped its attack to stare, no one was expecting a purple blur to come flying out of nowhere and save Bulbasaur's butt "Grrr." said purple blur was growling at Jolteon, whom had shot quickly to its feet, shaking off the surprise from being blindsided "Jolt!" Jolteon glared at the newcomer, not taking too kindly to its sneak attack "Hey, its Rattata!" Standing before Bulbasaur, who winced once again as its burn spiked up, was the Rattata they had rescued only hours before looking as good as new, or at least better than the condition it was found in and judging by the way it still had bandages hanging off its form, that Rattata had escaped the Pokémon Center.

"Rattata, what are you doing here?"

Rattata said nothing and instead fired a blue bolt of electricity at Charmander, Shock Wave, catching the lizard Pokémon off guard as its body was suddenly surrounded by the electric aura. Charmander cried out and then stumbled backwards once the attack stopped, it too soon began glaring at Rattata, along with its trainer Reshi "What, you can't beat us yourself, so you have to call reinforcements? Tch, no matter we'll crush you!"

Ryan blinked and then glanced at Rattata, who was panting slightly, but didn't seem deterred from its task at hand, it charged again this time launching itself at Charmander, biting the lizard on the arm with its sharp teeth and Charmander howled with pain in response, Zek then called on his Jolteon to help his brother's Charmander out, by using Double Kick, but Rattata quickly moved away, causing the Jolteon to kick its battle partner. Ryan and Bulbasaur watched this all with wide confused eyes "_why is __Rattata__ helping us?_"

"You annoying little pest! I'll pulverize you! Charmander, Dragon Rage!" Charmander nodded and the flame on its tail began to grow, its eyes suddenly started glowing white and then a ball of red orange flame appeared. Charmander then roared and the flame suddenly turned into a miniature inferno like flamethrower, the flame slammed into Rattata, sending the mouse flying back into Bulbasaur who at the time was just watching, both Pokémon were soon tangled in an array of limbs as they fell back against the grass. "Bulbasaur! Rattata!"

"Bulbasaurrrr" Bulbasaur had swirls in its eyes from its spot on the grass, he had clearly been knocked out, while Rattata was panting heavily, it really looked ready to collapse, all this strain it was putting on itself wasn't helping the healing process "Bulbasaur" Ryan muttered softly with a slight smile, before pulling out the Pokéball and recalling his starter "you did a good job, you deserve a nice rest." Ryan then stood and glared at Zek and Reshi, who were smirking smugly at the boy, they had recalled their Pokémon as well "Heh, looks like I was right, you _are_ weak!" Reshi spat with a triumphant grin "even with the help of that annoying little pest, you still lost, all bark and no bite." he glared pointedly at Rattata, who bared her fangs and Ryan scowled at them "I only lost, because you two double teamed me! I bet if we had a one on one, I'd wipe the floor with both of you!"

Zek snorted "Ha, as if! You won't be wiping anything with that weak Bulbasaur punk, you should just give up on battling," Ryan grit his teeth and clenched his fist, he pointed a finger at both of them "the next time we meet, I'm gonna cream your clocks! Just you wait, then I'll show _you_ whose truly weak." The Brothers burst into a fit of laughter and it was then that Ryan stormed off angrily, in some random direction not noticing that Rattata was right at his heel, he didn't really care, he just had to get away from those two jokes that called themselves trainers. A real trainer had honor and didn't double team people "_their nothing but a couple of sore losers_." he snorted at the thought and then leaned against a nearby tree, sure he was out of their area, having walked for a bit to get away from them. Sighing Ryan pulled out Bulbasaur's Pokéball and slumped towards the ground, legs akimbo, his bag sliding roughly against the tree bark as he did so "Regardless of what those cheats said Bulbasaur, I think you did a great job, even though we were outnumbered 2 to 1."

Glancing up from staring deeply at the Pokéball, Ryan was a bit startled to find Rattata by his side, sitting back on her hind legs staring up at him, red eyes blinking. Ryan blinked back slowly at the mouse, before he put Bulbasaur's ball away and gently placed a hand on her head, the Rattata smiled and nuzzled his hand, which gave him the incentive to gently rub her fur and scratch behind her ear "You like that huh girl?" Rattata nodded and tilted her head for more leverage, Ryan just grinned widely and continued to scratch her ear before speaking up "thanks a lot for coming to our rescue when you did Rattata. You didn't have to though and by the looks of it I don't think you should have…" he glanced pointedly at her bandages the ones wrapped around her neck her tightly secured, but the ones that were on her torso were loose, damaged and falling, no doubt from the short battle she just got into.

"Hey, maybe I can help you out a little." Leaning forward Ryan grabbed his bag and then reached into it, he pulled out a roll of bandages, some scissors and a Potion "I'm used to treating wounds, especially my own," he laughed at his own inside joke while Rattata blinked. "Okay, now I can't do as good a job as a Chansey or Nurse Joy, but the least I can do is give you some fresh bandages, so c'mere," he motioned for the mouse to sit on his thigh, which she did as told, surprisingly, considering that hours earlier she had been afraid of him "_I wonder what changed?_" Shaking his head at the thought, Ryan twirled the scissors in his hands briefly before getting to work.

In less than 5 minutes, Ryan was done cleaning and rewrapping up Rattata's torso with fresher bandages. He rebagged his stuff and slipped the pack back on and in response the Rattata smiled and nuzzled his hand again, to which he complied by scratching her behind the ear. So now here he sat in the middle of Viridian Forest with an injured Rattata in his lap, with him idly petting her "Too bad Pokémon can't talk Rattata, I always wonder what you guys are thinking," said Ryan after a few moments of silence, he stopped petting the mouse and sat gazing blankly at the tree's thoughtfully "I need to catch another Pokémon, but Bulbasaur needs to rest some more after our battle…" thinking back to the battle, Ryan glanced back down at the mouse on his lap "speaking of that battle… I wonder why you suddenly came, I mean why would you want to help us?"

_Because I wanted to pay you back._

Ryan blinked and then looked around the area questioningly, was he hearing things?

"What are you deaf? I said I was doing it to pay you back!" Ryan froze and then glanced down on his lap, to see the Rattata peering up at him "what, never saw a talking Pokémon before?" Ryan yelped and jumped back with a start, his eyes widening and mouth flapping like a Magikarp, he pointed a shaky finger at Rattata "y-you can _talk_!" Rattata rolled her eyes and muttered flatly "yes genius, what was your first clue."

This was new.

* * *

**Edited 2/5/11: The obvious grammatical issues were fixed and I added more to Pidgey and Bulbasaur's confrontation.  
**


	3. To Sketch a Pikachu!

**Chapter 3**

"But you can't talk, Pokémon aren't _supposed_ to talk! Why are you _talking_?"

Rattata scoffed in response before shrugging "Your guess is as good as mine, one minute all I can say is my name and then next I can speak." Ryan blinked "So, you don't remember how you got this way?" Rattata shook her head "every time I try to remember, I get nothing, just blankness."

"What about how you got hurt. Do you remember that?" Rattata shook her head no again and Ryan frowned slightly "well, that sucks," she nodded in agreement, silence enveloped them, Ryan rubbed his bicep awkwardly before releasing a light sigh "well. . . uhh I gotta go. It was umm nice talking with you Rattata." With that said, Ryan turned away and began making his way through the forest, he figured that if he kept going now, he might be able to get out of this place before nightfall, it was already late mid afternoon when he and Bulbasaur had entered the forest and with that battle side tracking them and there was the fact that they had gotten lost.

As he walked on in silence, Ryan couldn't help but notice that Rattata was following him, after all it was hard to miss a purple mouse covered in bandages, he glanced back accusingly at the rattata "Why are you following me?" she met his gaze unwavering and then murmured "well, I figured, that since your only Pokémon is out of commission and your all alone and unprotected, I thought I'd be your bodyguard."

"My bodyguard?" Ryan repeated slowly and Rattata nodded her head vigorously, the brunette opened his mouth to respond and then shook his head before sighing, having her tag along probably wouldn't hurt "whatever," Ryan then began to pick up his pace and started walking again, Rattata on the other hand glanced around nervously and allowed her ears to drop on the side of her head before following after the boy, running up to walk by his side, her foot frame was so tiny compare to his average height "So, what's your name?"

"Ryan. You got a name?"

Rattata shook her head and Ryan mumbled a simple oh "how did you find me?" The mouse tapped her nose while they walked "My nose, I'm still a Pokémon you know. I just can talk." She stated simply while glancing at Ryan who had folded his arms behind his head "this is kinda weird ya know, when I said I wished Pokémon could talk, I didn't mean literally, it's a bit awkward." He laughed lightly and glanced at Rattata from the corner of his eye. He was curious on how she gained the ability to talk, but apparently the Pokémon had some sort of amnesia and couldn't remember anything, not even how she wound up lying half dead earlier this morning and now this talking rattata was following him just so she could be his '_bodyguard_' Ryan never heard of anything this odd in his life and considering the stories his father used to tell him when he was younger, he was sure that this was one of the oddest.

"Hey, you smell that?" Ryan blinked when Rattata suddenly stopped walking and stuck her nose in the air to sniff around "smell what?" Ryan slowly sniffed the air, trying to smell what the mouse smelled, but it was no use, a human's nose wasn't as sensitive as a Pokémon "it smells really sweet…" Rattata murmured closing her eyes and inhaling deeply. Suddenly her red eyes snapped open and she shot off "it's coming from over here!" Ryan only blinked as she darted into the bushes but came back out seconds later upon realizing he wasn't following "C'mon!" She motioned with a wave of her small paw and Ryan didn't know what he found more strange, the fact that he was listening to her or following her.

Rattata and Ryan were running through the forest, dashing around trees and bushes to follow the sweet smell she had picked up "it's getting stronger!" She cried after they ran past like their fifth bush and then suddenly they broke through the trees and hit a clearing and on one of the many trees that littered this expansive forest was a large spot of yellow slathered on its bark. Rattata sniffed once more at the air and moved closer to the tree "what is this stuff? It smells so sweet…" Ryan smiled slightly and walked over to Rattata, picking her up and bringing her eye level to the substance on the tree "it's Honey, you've never had Honey before?"

Ryan swiped at the sticky sweet treat with his index finger and placed the digit in his mouth "Mmm, this is really sweet" Rattata blinked while watching the boy and then bought her own paw out to swipe at the sticky stuff and tentatively licked it, the moment she tasted it, her eyes lit up and she began swiping at the Honey in rapid succession, stuffing her face "umy!" Rattata murmured, her mouth full with Honey. Ryan laughed as she began to lick at her now sticky paws "I can't believe you ate all of that. How could you have never had Honey before?" Rattata looked up at Ryan with an 'I dunno' expression, while one of her paws were jammed in her mouth. Ryan began laughing again, she looked so ridiculous with a paw stuffed in her mouth and bits of Honey dribbling out from the corner of her cheek, obviously having a bit of trouble swallowing the thick sweet treat.

"Driiii"

There was a loud angry buzzing noise and Ryan and Rattata froze before glancing upwards, a Beedrill, a large wasp like Pokémon with giant white stingers and transparent veined wings was glaring down at them, stingers pointing out threateningly "Drii! Drii Drii!" Rattata gulped thickly and her pupils shrunk, she then turned her head towards Ryan and whispered harshly "we need to get out of here…"

"Why?"

"Beedrill was collecting Honey for its hive and it's a bit annoyed that we just ate the honey it was about to collect" Ryan blanched and then glanced down at Rattata with wide eyes "_We_? What do you mean _we_, I had like a drop, _you're_ the one who ate all of it!" Beedrill just buzzed louder "Dri Dri Drill!" Ryan looked at Rattata "what'd it say now?"

"That it's going to make us pay." Ryan laughed nervously and then glanced up at Beedrill "Hey, uh... Beedrill, we're really sorry about eating your Honey, it was a total accident!" Beedrill just buzzed angrily in response and flew forward, stingers glowing pure white "Whoa!" Ryan ducked just in time, so the bug flew over their heads, he then turned to Rattata and spoke in a commanding tone "Hey, use Shock Wave on it."

"_What_! Why? Are you trying to make it madder at us?"

"Don't ask! Just do it, and make it strong!" Rattata nodded and jumped out of Ryan's arms, a beam of blue light shot from her tiny body and it struck the Beedrill at full force, causing the bug to cry out and Ryan quickly pulled out a Pokéball and tossed it at the faltering Beedrill, a beam of red light sucked the giant bee into the Pokéball and it fell to the ground with a musical thud, the ball wobbled back and forth for several tense breaths before the ball stopped shaking and confirmed the capture with a soft ding. Ryan sighed in relief and moved over to pick up his recently captured Beedrill "Whew that was close…" he mumbled pulling out his Pokédex and scanning the ball.

"**Beedrill**, _the Poison Bee Pokémon. It flies at high speed and attacks using the large venomous stingers on its forelegs and tail._" Ryan scrolled down and glanced at Beedrill's moveset "Hmm, not a bad set…" there was a soft tug on his pant leg "Uh Ryan…" Blue eyes snapped down to the mouse tugging at his pants "Yea? What's up?" Ryan raise a brow curiously as the mouse's ears suddenly fell back against her head and she slowly pointed behind him, whirling around, Ryan felt his jaw drop and almost dropped his Pokédex and Beedrill's Pokéball. There were about a dozen Beedrill floating menacingly behind him, their eyes shining angrily as a loud buzzing met his ears "I think you just caught their leader or something, because they sound really angry…"

Ryan gulped audibly and then slowly pocketed his Pokédex and Pokéball, once his items were safe, he glanced out from the corner of his eye and whispered at Rattata "Hey, use Shock Wave again," she looked at him with a skeptical gaze that clearly said 'are you out of your freaking mind!' "C'mon, we aren't gonna go through this again, you did it the first time…" Rattata bared her teeth while she hissed out a reply "yeah, that's because there was one, this is like a whole lot more!" Ryan scoffed and rolled his eyes "just trust me and do it!" frowning slightly, Rattata complied nonetheless, sparks shooting from her body and flying at the Beedrill, hitting the bugs causing them to cry out in pain. Unfortunately unlike the first Beedrill, they didn't falter and fall, instead this mild shocking proceeded to anger them further, thus causing Ryan and Rattata to flee from the angry Pokémon "anymore brilliant plans genius!" Rattata exclaimed as they darted quickly through the forest, a legion of Beedrill hot on their tail.

"Yeah, shut up and keep running!"

**x-X-x**

"I think… _hah_… we lost them." Ryan panted and fell back on his behind, leaning most of his weight on his palms as he struggled to catch his breath. Rattata was draped over his knee, breathing just as heavily "all this running is going to be the death of me." She breathed and Ryan glanced down at the mouse, sure enough her new bandages had become tattered and dirty once more "here, why don't I just carry you for now," Rattata stopped breathing momentarily and then looked up at Ryan from her spot across his knee "what?" Ryan just sighed softly before picking the mouse up into his arms "you're not exactly in the best physical condition to be fighting and after all that running we did, you need to rest or you'll over exhaust yourself," Rattata stayed silent as he continued to speak "so, I guess until we make it to Pewter City, I'll carry you!" He grinned down at the purple Pokémon, who glanced up briefly before nodding "thanks."

Ryan then began walking, well more like wandering. He still had no idea how close they were to the exit and so far they haven't hit any signs that could tell them otherwise, plus so far the forest seemed to be really empty as of late, nobody was around, not even the Pokémon poked their heads out "This is really odd. . . you think something scared them off?" From her spot, tucked in the crook of his arm, Rattata shrugged, just as confused as he was "but then again, no Pokémon around means no unnecessary battles, so I guess this is a good thing, but just in case I wind up jinxing myself…" Ryan pulled out a ball from his belt "Bulbasaur, come out!" He pointed the ball at the ground and in a flash of white light, Bulbasaur materialized right in front of him "Bulbasaur." The Seed Pokémon yawned slightly before glancing up at its Trainer "Hey Bulbasaur, have a nice nap?" Bulbasaur shook its head slightly and Ryan smiled "I'm glad you're feeling better."

"Bul-basaurr," Bulbasaur glanced at Rattata in Ryan's arms and the boy began to explain "Oh yeah, I guess you guys haven't officially met, Bulbasaur, this is Rattata and Rattata, this is Bulbasaur" Rattata waved slightly at Bulbasaur and he nodded back in response "Well, c'mon let's get going. The sooner we get outta this forest, the bett— er huh?" Ryan paused and then narrowed his eyes, up ahead of them he saw a flash of something orange and yellow "What's that? . . .a girl and a Pikachu?" Moving forward a bit more, Ryan was able to make out the figures through the trees and it indeed was a girl and a Pikachu. The girl was standing a few feet away from the tree, where a Pikachu was perched in the branch, obliviously munching an apple, curious, Ryan wanted to get more closer, except he wasn't paying much attention to where he was stepping, because he stepped on a dry leaf causing it to crunch loudly and snap the Pikachu out of its daze, it noticed the girl in the distance and fled, leaping out of the tree and darting into the bushes.

"No way! I was almost finished! Who scared Pikachu away?" Angrily the girl whirled around and spotted Ryan, she pointed her pencil threateningly at him "what the heck was that for jerk!" Ryan chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly with his only free hand "Heh, sorry. I didn't mean to scare it away…" the girl just huffed and lowered her pencil; the glare she sported morphed into a sour frown "sure you didn't…"

Ryan gave a sheepish laugh before studying her. She stood roughly the same height as him, with strips of dark orange hair that framed her face; the rest of her head was covered by a large white artist beret while forest green eyes stared back at his blue, rising above the black oval shaped frames of her glasses. She was wearing sleeveless green crop top that stopped just below her chest, and underneath it she wore a long-sleeved white shirt that had oversized cuffs, almost covering her black fingerless gloves, only the tips of her fingers were visible. Her capri pants were cream colored and her shoes were an orange and white color, hanging off her shoulder was a large yellow messenger bag in the shape of a Pikachu face. "Honest, I didn't mean to! I was just curious," he murmured scratching his cheek "what were you doing anyway?" The girl looked at Ryan thoughtfully before raising the sketchbook that was in her hands, there on the sheet of paper was a half finished picture of Pikachu, she had managed to catch its profile from the side and got up to the electric types arm, before it abruptly stopped. "Whoa, that's good" Ryan, Rattata and Bulbasaur stared at the picture for a few more moments before the girl pulled her book away and stuffed it into her bag, while placing her pencil behind her ear "I coulda been finished too, if you hadn't come along!"

"Again, I'm totally sorry, but why don't you just draw something else?" The girl looked at Ryan as though someone had just slapped her once those words left his mouth "Draw something else? I can't just _draw_ something else, I have to draw that _Pikachu_!" Ryan on the other hand didn't get it "I don't understand, what's the big deal? It's just a Pikachu."

"Just a Pikachu. . ." she repeated slowly before her eyes narrowed fiercely into slits "_Just a Pikachu!_ It's not just a Pikachu! This Pikachu is my _muse_! I have to draw it and then I'm going to capture it! And you three are going to help me!" She stared pointedly at Ryan and his two Pokémon "What! No way, I have more important things to do than to go running around a forest with some weird girl obsessed with drawing Pikachu, I need to get Rattata here to Nurse Joy, she's seriously hurt!" He gestured to the mouse in his arms and Rattata nodded slightly in agreement, though she wasn't sure why he was trying to milk her injuries far more than they were worth. "So if you'll excuse me, we have to go. C'mon Bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur nodded and began trailing after Ryan, who walked around the orange haired girl, but she quickly moved to block his path, holding her arms out "hold it! You don't need to hurry to Pewter City, because I have just what you need right here!"

Ryan stared at her in disbelief and muttered a weak, "you do?" with Rattata mumbling just as softly in disbelief "she does?" The girl nodded and rummaged through her large back, she saw that the inside was lined with yellow and it was very spacious and she had a lot of things jammed in there "tada!" After finding what she was looking for, the girl pulled it out, it was a medium sized rectangular shaped bottle filled with a green liquid "Here is a Full Restore, I was saving it for later, but I guess I'll help you out, but only because you owe me!"

"What! I don't owe you! I don't even know you!"

"_You_ scared off Pikachu, so _you're_ gonna help me find it, sketch it _and_ catch it, weather you want to or not! Now hand over Rattata!" She placed her hand on her hips and glared harshly at him, causing Ryan and gulp and stand down, he knew that stance well enough from his mom to know that it meant no games and to stop arguing before he got hurt. Groaning softly, Ryan held out the injured Rattata to the girl and she began to unravel the bandages on her body and neck, spraying the potion here and there on the most visible injured areas, causing Rattata to wince "I know it stings girl, but that means it's working."

Within moments of being sprayed, Rattata was soon standing and stretching too, she arched her back and then sighed contently "wow, that spray stuff works wonders! I feel better than ever! Thank you weird girl!" Rattata looked at the orange haired girl and grinned, in response she gaped at the purple mouse for a few seconds, before glaring at her "You're welcome and my names not weird girl, its Nina! Now C'mon, we've got a Pikachu to find!" She whirled around and began to stalk off glancing around for Pikachu, but Ryan reached out and called her "Hey. Nina, wait a second, ya think I could use that on Bulbasaur. He was battling earlier and got seriously hurt." Nina rolled her eyes and then dug back into her bag and handed the used potion to the Ryan "You know what, keep it. I've got a few more in my bag, missing one isn't gonna kill me."

Ryan gripped the potion loosely and then stared at Nina briefly before running to catch up with her, Bulbasaur and Rattata at his heels. "Uhh, thanks, by the way. I'm Ryan," he pointed to himself with a slight smile, but Nina just brushed off his introduction "yeah, yeah, that's great. Look Raynerd, lets split up and meet back here in…" she rummaged through her bag and pulled out a small wrist watch "let's say 20 minutes, I'll take your Rattata and you take Bulbasaur, if you find Pikachu, holler or something." Ryan blinked and was about to correct Nina on her mistakes, one thing for sure, his name was Ryan, not _Raynerd_ and Rattata wasn't officially his either, but before the brunette could get a word in, she grabbed Rattata and ran off, leaving a very confused Ryan and an indifferent Bulbasaur "Bulbasaur..."

"Saur?"

"Girls are weird."

"Bulba."

**x-X-x**

"Now, if I were a pikachu, where would I be..." parting the branches of a bush, Nina scanned the area, she was on her knees looking for the rare and elusive electric mouse Pokémon that made its home in the forest "So, why do you want to draw and catch this Pikachu so badly?" Rattata was glancing around the area herself, but not for Pikachu, she was scanning the treetops for some fruit. Sitting back on her legs, Nina answered "Because, pikachu is one of my favorite Pokémon! Plus this little guy has been evading me ever since we first locked eyes."

"Oh."

"Yeah, plus I need another picture to add to my sketchbook, see..." trailing off she dug around in her messenger bag and pulled out a large blue sketchpad and flipped it open to a random page, before pointing to the picture drawn there, Rattata blinked but looked at them curiously "this is a Poliwag in the Pond near my house, it was playing around with Bubble. I thought it was so cute, so I had to draw it!" She flipped to another page "and this is a sleeping male Nidoran," she flipped the page once more "and this is a trainer's Jigglypuff!" Nina grinned and closed her pad, sliding it back into her bag "I love drawing cute Pokémon and Pikachu is the cutest! I've always wanted one ever since I heard about this boy who lived in Pallet Town, who started off with a Pikachu and then I watched one of his battles in the Pokémon League. His Pikachu was so strong and cute too!" Her eyes sparkled with admiration and her voice took on a dreamlike tone "I don't know the guy's name, but his Pikachu inspired me, in fact I drew his Pikachu once, while it was using Iron Tail, I had to pause my screen though... it's one of my greatest works yet! Wanna see it?"

"Uhhm... sure?" Rattata didn't understand this girl one bit, or her mad love for pikachu, what's so special about them anyway? Nina dug through her bag again and pulled out a different sketchbook, this one was green and looked a lot more fancier than the plain blue one she had before "This is my special Sketchbook," she explained "I only use this to draw really special moments here but so far I've only managed to get that guy's Pikachu…" she showed Rattata the picture and her eyes widened at how realistic it looked, it was amazing! Pikachu was in the middle of the page, whirling around to use Iron Tail, the electric type looked like it was frozen in time against the blue background, unlike the other sketches, this one was filled in with color, the striking yellow of the rodent's fur clashed against the blue of its background, its normally yellow bolt shaped tail, was coated with silver and black, brown eyes narrowed deeply in concentration as it moved to hit some invisible enemy. "Wow..."

"I know right!" Nina snapped the book closed with a grin and then put that back into her bag and rose to her feet "Now c'mon, we've wasted enough time looking at my pictures, let's go find us a pikachu!" Rattata paused slightly but then snapped back and ran after Nina, who was taking long strides as she moved easily through the trees, in search of her muse, leaving poor Rattata behind "hey, wait up!"

"_I know pikachu like Oran berries._" thoughtfully, Nina began to glance around the area, scanning the trees for fruit "Hey! Look up there, it's an Oran Berry tree!" She pointed to the tree that was filled with the small blue berries "Hey, you think you can go up there and knock a few of them down for me?" Rattata was hesitant for a moment, but then nodded "Yeah sure," she then darted towards the tree, running up the bark easily until she reach the highest branch that was filled with berries "incoming!" Rattata knocked about 6 berries in total out of the tree and onto the ground and then plucked two for herself and stuffed them in her mouth before jumping down "so now what?" She asked, chewing and swallowing the berries, watching as Nina gathered the berries and stacked them like a pyramid, three at the bottom, two in the middle and one on top, she then grabbed Rattata and ducked behind the tree that housed the berries "now, we wait," she whispered, poking her head out slightly and waiting for the Pikachu to come and claim its prize.

"How long have we been sitting here? I'm bored and hungry."

Nina breathed deeply and rolled her eyes, this was probably the 5th time she had asked that "we've only been here for 5 minutes, and if you're hungry then climb in the tree and get some more berries, just _please_ be quiet!" Nina turned and glared at Rattata, who gave a flat stare back while frowning and dashing up the tree, muttering to herself before disappearing into one of the higher branches, hidden behind the leaves "_finally, some peace and quiet_," she thought with a slight huff before turning her attention back to the pile of Oran berries, but she gasped softly at what she saw, it was Pikachu! The pikachu was here, and it was eating the berries! This was great! Digging through her bag, Nina pulled out her sketchpad and took the pencil from her ear and began to draw, all was quiet in Viridian Forest, save for the light scratching from Nina's pencil meeting her sketch paper, it was 2 minutes later, that Nina had finished her drawing and at the same time Pikachu had finished its berries, rubbing its tummy with a satisfied grin, it cooed "Chaaaa."

Nina used this moment to reveal herself, she stood up and pointed her pencil dramatically at the mouse "Pikachu, I've come to capture you!" Rattata poked her head out from her spot in the tree, watching the spectacle below "_this girl sure can cause a scene…_" Nina unclipped a Pokéball from her belt and tossed it at Pikachu "Pokéball go!" The red and white ball soared through the air and was heading straight towards Pikachu, who sat there and waited til the last moment to spin around and smack the ball back at the girl with its tail, it slammed into her face, leaving a noticeable ball imprint on her. Pikachu laughed loudly at her failed attempt while Nina frowned and then glanced up at the tree where Rattata was hiding "hey, get down here and help me catch this Pikachu!" Rattata glanced around and then pointed to herself "uh me?" Nina nodded "yes you, you're the only other Pokémon here aren't you? Now get down here and do something!"

Rattata rolled her eyes and then grumbled to herself before leaping down off the branch and a few feet away from Pikachu "Thanks! Now, what can you do?" The mouse in question just sighed before firing a Shock Wave attack which made a direct, hit "that's great and all Rattata, but pikachu aren't affected much by electric type attacks, what else do you have?" Rattata didn't respond, because she was too busy trying to dodge the ThunderShock attack from Pikachu "I can do this!" Rattata charged at Pikachu, a trail of yellow energy was seen behind Rattata as she rushes Pikachu, tackling the yellow mouse with great force "Pika!" Pikachu cried out as it was pushed back a bit "Pikachuuuu!" cheeks sparking, it glared at Rattata, before running at the mouse "Pikachuchuchuchuchu!" Once it managed to get in close, Pikachu whirled around and began smacking Rattata repeatedly with its tail "Whoa, it knows DoubleSlap!"

"Chuchuchuuu-Pika!" With that final 'Pika' Pikachu slammed its tail harshly into Rattata's cheek, sending the purple mouse flying, she landed on the ground with a thud at Nina's feet, causing the girl to gasp "Rattata! Are you alright?" Rattata groaned before slowly rising to her feet and rubbing at her sore slapped cheeks "you'll pay for that," she hissed and Pikachu stuck its tongue out and blew a raspberry at her. Snarling Rattata charged at Pikachu with Double-Edge again and the electric mouse leaped into the air, dodging her attack "Pikach—uu?" Pikachu froze suddenly when Rattata latched her teeth onto its tail with a Bite attack after it jumped in the air to dodge the previous Double-Edge, "Pikachu! PikaPika!" Once it landed safely on the ground, Pikachu began fiercely wagging its tail, trying to throw Rattata off, but she latched on tight "Pikachuuu!" Becoming irritated because Rattata wouldn't let go, Pikachu used ThunderShock again, but the mouse was still hanging on, even after the harsh shocking "hrry an cat it!" Rattata exclaimed somehow through her mouth full of tail, but Nina got the drift and pulled out another Pokéball "Okay, Pokéball go!"

This time the Pokéball hit Pikachu, bouncing off the mouse's head and then sucking the creature into the red and white ball, from her spot on the sidelines, Nina watched as the ball rocked back and forth several times and she crossed her fingers, hoping that the capture would be successful, so when she heard the soft ding that indicated the Pokémon had been caught successfully, she leapt for joy "Yes, I caught a Pikachu! Thanks so much Rattata." Nina turned toward the mouse, whom was lying on the ground, smoking rising from her body and her eyes were swirling. Nina sweat dropped and picked up the fainted rattata, she then began making her way back towards the area she and Ryan were supposed to meet, a wide satisfied grin splitting her face.

* * *

**A/N: Here's chapter three! Thank you Anonymous and**** Ryuzaki Izinski for reviewing!**** Well, I'm a bit excited! Best Wishes airs on the 23rd!  
I wonder if I'll have this finished and maybe be on my next region by the time the series ends. . . I hope so :)**

**Edits made on 2/3/11: Fixed obvious grammatical issues, edited some dialogue and took out the**** PokéArtist thing.**

**Edited 2/5/11: For some reason, FFN is being a dick and messed up my chapters. I'm positive when I edited this yesterday, that I replaced the right chapter, but for some reason, Chapter 1 was in Chapter 2 and Chapter 1 had been replaced with recently edited Chapter 3, and now 2 is completely missing! Meaning I have to reedit it AGAIN! Dammit FFN!**


	4. Get the Boulder Badge!

**Chapter 4**

"Alright, now Chewy, you sit right here and Rattata you stand like this and lower your tail a bit! Chewy, turn your head this way! Wait— right there. Perfect!"

"Do you have to do this now? I mean I'm kinda in a hurry here."

"Oh hold your horses, I'm almost done, I just need to put the finishing touches on it."

Ryan rolled his eyes and released a heavy sigh as he watched Nina sketch a picture of Chewy, her newly captured pikachu, and Rattata. They were lounging about inside the Pokémon Center in Pewter City with an extremely anxious Ryan trying to hurry over towards the Gym to challenge the Gym Leader for his first badge. Sadly Ryan had to wait until today to challenge him and not yesterday, because by the time they got out Viridian Forest, Ryan and Bulbasaur got lost again because he decided to run around fighting random Caterpies, Pidgey and Pidgeotto that crossed their path, it had gotten too late and the Gym was closed for the evening so they stayed the night at the Center, with Ryan stating he'd be up bright and early to face the Gym, but Nina decided to lollygag and used this time to start sketching Chewy and Rattata, because she found the two adorable as they sat back to back munching on the fruit left over from their breakfast.

_Skrtch. Skrtch. Skrtch._

"Are you finally finished yet?" Ryan growled, tapping his foot irately, while Nina rolled her eyes and huffed before stuffing her sketch book back in her bag "yes mister impatient," slinging it around to rest on her hip. Nina allowed Chewy to clamber up on one of her shoulders and Rattata climbed onto the other one "great, now let's go!" Ryan then rushed out of the Pokémon Center, with an exasperated Nina following at his heels. It didn't take long to get to Pewter Gym, it was a large building with the outside made entirely out of stone. Upon entering Ryan and Nina were greeted with darkness "HEY IS ANYONE IN HERE?" Ryan shouted squinting his eyes in the darkness gradually he was able to make out a figure sitting atop a stone pedestal located on the opposite side of the Gym "are you the leader here?" The silhouetted figure gave a short bark of laughter before jumping down off the stones he was seated on and the lights of the gym turned on, revealing a young brown haired boy wearing a green shirt and brown pants, his arms were crossed stiffly as he gazed at Ryan, or at least Ryan thought he was gazing at him. He couldn't really tell the difference since the boy's eyes seems to be closed.

"Greetings challenger, I am Forrest, leader of the Pewter Gym!"

"You're the leader?"

Forrest nodded and Ryan paused before glancing back at Nina with a confused look "he's just a little kid... I was kinda expecting someone bigger." Forrest glowered at Ryan's words "I am not a little kid! My big brother Brock left me in charge of the Gym, so I'm more than capable! Now are you here to battle or what?" Ryan gazed at the boy thoughtfully before nodding "Yeah."

"Alright, this is a 3-on-3 battle, only the challenger is allowed to switch their Pokémon. First to have all Pokémon unable to battle, is the winner." Forrest recited while glancing at Ryan, who had a nervous look on his face "t-three Pokémon? But, I only have two. . ." Nina blinked from her spot behind the two boys "two?" She repeated before glancing at Rattata "but I thought Rattata was yours..." Ryan shook his head and Nina hummed thoughtfully "well, I don't believe there's a rule about battling with a Pokémon that hasn't officially been caught by the trainer. Why don't you use Rattata?"

"Use Rattata?" Ryan glanced back at said mouse, who sat back on Nina's shoulder, blinking at the boy when his gaze fell on her "would that be okay, if I used Rattata?" He turned back towards Forrest, who shrugged "as long as the Pokémon doesn't mind, sure." Ryan looked back at Rattata questioningly and the mouse smiled slightly before leaping off Nina's shoulder and onto Ryan's "Thanks Rattata" said mouse nodded in response and Ryan stepped forward onto the battle field, while Forrest took his place on the opposite side of the large jagged rock filled field "YOU CAN DO IT FORREST!" – "MAKE BROTHER PROUD!" – "CRUSH HIM!" Came a sudden shout from the stands high above the Gym's floor, Ryan glanced back to see a bunch of little kids he hadn't seen before huddled together, cheering for their older brother, while Nina made her way up the stairs to stand beside them.

They each gazed at Nina curiously, before looking at Chewy, who blinked back "whoa, she has a pikachu, just like Ash does!" one of the boys exclaimed and Chewy felt a bit of pride swell in his chest so he smiled down at the kids "but I think Ash's Pikachu looks cuter," one of the younger girls mumbled and Chewy's smile turned into a frown and his ears drooped "Pi-kachu." He muttered while Nina chuckled before turning her gaze back towards the battlefield. "Alright, I'll choose first. Geodude lets go!" Forrest tossed out the living rock's Pokéball and it appeared on the field in a flash "Geo!" it cried, flexing its arms "a Geodude huh" Ryan pulled out his Pokédex and scanned it "**Geodude**, _the Rock Pokémon. Geodude has incredibly high defensive power, making it virtually resistant to any physical attacks._" Ryan grabbed his own Pokéball and tossed it down "I'm going with Bulbasaur!" The Seed Pokémon appeared opposite of Geodude, yawning slightly as he was called from his ball "Bulbasaur!"

"Bulbasaur, going with type advantage huh?" Forrest asked and Ryan nodded in conformation "No matter, Geodude's gonna beat your bulbasaur regardless! Now go on, challengers get the first move."

Ryan scoffed before clenching his fist "alright, Bulbasaur use Leaf Storm!" Bulbasaur grunted and the bulb on his back was soon outlined in green, before a twister of glowing green leaves appeared, shooting out from the sides of its bulb and swirling around him once before they were quickly fired at Geodude "Bulba!"

"Block, Geodude!"

"Geo!" Geodude did as told, crossing its arms in front of it, allowing the leaves to hit it full force, Ryan and Bulbasaur watched as the rock stayed levitating in place while it was being pelted by the glowing green leaves. Once the attack had finished, Geodude uncrossed its arms and smirked smugly at Bulbasaur "Geo," Ryan's eyes widened "no way! That should've been super effective!"

"Heh, don't underestimate us! You don't think you were the first trainer to try something like this? Geodude has withstood even strong attacks like Water Gun, so you'll have to do better than that if you wanna win!" Forrest rubbed at the bridge of his nose before pointing dramatically at Bulbasaur "Geodude use Tackle!" Geodude grunted in response, before charging at Bulbasaur, throwing all its weight into the tackle, the floating rock rushed the Seed Pokémon, sending Bulbasaur skidding backwards "Bulbasaur! You okay?" Bulbasaur nodded before growling at Geodude "Bulbaa…"

"Okay, let's try Vine Whip!"

"Dodge with Dig!"

Bulbasaur fired his twin set of vines at the floating rock, but before Bulbasaur even had a chance to attack Geodude disappeared underground, clawing away at the earth with its large hands until the only thing Bulbasaur could see was the top of the hole. "Bulba?" Bulbasaur glanced around the area, curious as to where Geodude might pop out. "Mega Punch Geodude!" Forrest smirked when he saw Geodude pop up from the far left of Bulbasaur, startling the Seed Pokémon, and then cocking its glowing fist back slightly before swiftly uppercutting Bulbasaur, with enough force to send the grass starter flying and rolling to a stop right at the feet of its trainer "Bulbasaur!" Ryan glanced at Bulbasaur and a look of devastation crossed his face upon realizing the Pokémon had fainted "Bulba... saurr" he groaned with swirly eyes and Ryan recalled him frowning.

"I can't believe Bulbasaur lost to Geodude, it clearly had the type advantage. . ." Nina murmured in awe "Bulbasaur should've won. . ." one of the kids beside her spoke up "that may be so, but our big brother's Geodude has been trained well enough to overcome those type advantages, that's why Bulbasaur's Leaf Storm in the beginning was ineffective. Type advantages are great in battle, but it won't matter if the Pokémon is strong enough conquer its disadvantage. I mean, our brother has a friend whose pikachu is strong enough to take out ground type Pokémon with just its electric attacks."

"Yeah, Ash is so cool!" One of the girls said, her eyes sparkling in admiration "Pika-chu" Chewy gasped and Nina glanced at the yellow mouse on her shoulder "His pikachu beat a ground type? That's unheard of!"

"Perhaps, but Ash did it and that right there just proves that type isn't everything. . ."

Nina hummed thoughtfully while processing the child's words "No, Geodude!" however, since she and the kids were busy talking, Ryan had already called out his Beedrill and the giant bee had quickly done away with the floating rock, resulting in Forrest's first loss and the two boys to be even in terms of remaining Pokémon. "Good job Beedrill!" Ryan gave his Beedrill a thumbs up and the bug just buzzed in response, flexing its stingers proudly.

"Alright, you managed to knock out Geodude, but that's where your winning streak ends. Crobat, go!" Forrest tossed down his second Pokéball, in a flash of light, a large purple bat like Pokémon appeared, with stubby tiny feet and two pairs of wings that were purple on the outside and had a greenish blue underside. Ryan pulled out his Pokédex and scanned it "**Crobat**, _the evolved form of Golbat. With its two additional wings, Crobat is able to fly much faster than Golbat._" Ryan blinked at the Crobat, briefly wondering why a Rock Gym Leader would have a Pokémon that was nowhere near his preferred type and then pulled out Beedrill's Pokéball "Return! Okay Rattata, you're up." From her spot on Ryan's shoulder, Rattata nodded and leaped down onto the battlefield, raising her head to peer at Crobat, who was hovering high above.

"I'll start, Crobat Wing Attack!" Crobat cried out and then flapped its wings once before swooping down towards Rattata, its top wings glowing a bright white. "Dodge Rattata and use Shock Wave!" Rattata nodded and flattened herself to the ground, causing Crobat's attack to just narrowly miss her as it passed, she then whirled around and fired a beam of blue electricity at Crobat's unprotected back from her tail "quickly, counter with Whirlwind!" Faster than Ryan or Rattata could imagine, Crobat spun around and flapped its four wings in rapid succession, creating a powerful gust of wind directed at Rattata, this caused the mouse to break her concentration and falter in the attack, it also sent her flying "Now, use Wing Attack!" Crobat screeched in conformation before it darted at the falling mouse that flailed helplessly in mid-air "Cro!" Crobat struck with its left wing, slashing Rattata harshly in the torso and then followed up with the right. Left, right, left, right, left! Rattata cried out every time she was struck in mid-air "Croo!" With one last powerful slash, Rattata was sent flying back at Ryan's feet.

"Rattata! Are you okay?"

With a grunt, Rattata weakly made it back to her feet, panting slightly, she glared up at Crobat. Ryan sighed in relief and then pointed at the giant bat "okay, try Double-Edge!" Rattata nodded and charged at Crobat, a trail of yellow light following behind her "Wing Attack!" Crobat's wings started to glow and it swooped down low towards the field, picking up speed the closer it got to the ground "Cro!" Rattata and Crobat's attacks hit head on, causing a loud explosion and dust to erupt on the field. Ryan squinted his eyes attempting to gaze past the thick smoke, but eventually it cleared and Rattata and Crobat were glaring at one another.

"Good, your still standing!"

"A resilient rattata you got there, but no match for Crobat, finish with Wing Attack!" Crobat flapped its wings once before they began to glow and it zoomed towards Rattata, Ryan grit his teeth "Dodge it!" Rattata lowered herself flat towards the ground in hopes of it flying over her and missing again "Uh-uh, we're not falling for that again, tilt Crobat!" Crobat did as told and tilted its body sideways, so the tips of its glowing wing span would brush against the battlefield kicking up a trail of dust and leaving a visible line across the dirt as it did so "No! Rattata!" Ryan watched as Rattata got hit with the Wing Attack, but instead of flying backwards like the two trainers assumed, the mouse latched on tightly with her teeth, holding out until the attack wore off "C-Cro!" Crobat was a bit astounded that this mouse was now literally hanging by her teeth on its wing, as it soared high above the Gym's field "Shake it off!" Forrest shouted "Cro! Cro! Cro!" Crobat flapped its right top wing, in an attempt to shake it off, but Rattata stuck it out "impressive Rattata, nice thinking! Now use Shock Wave!" Gritting her teeth, Rattata made sure to clamp down harder on Crobat's wing, before her body and soon Crobat's, were covered in blue electricity. Crobat cried out loudly in pain and then it suddenly stopped flapping its wings. With nothing keeping to two Pokémon high in the air, they were soon plummeting to the floor at a fast pace and hit the ground with a loud thud. "Crobat!" Forrest and Ryan looked at their two Pokémon, shock etching on both their faces.

"Whoa, double knock-out!" Nina exclaimed as she watched Ryan pick up Rattata off Crobat and Forrest recall said bat "So, that's two for two, but there's no way you'll beat my final Pokémon. Steelix I choose you!" Forrest tossed down the last Pokéball on his belt and in a bright flash of light a large, silver snake like Pokémon appeared. Rattata squeaked at the sheer size of the thing, while Ryan pulled out his Pokédex and scanned it "**Steelix**, _the Iron Snake Pokémon. Steelix is the evolved form of Onix. It has been compressed underground, making its body harder than diamonds._" Ryan reached onto his own belt and pulled out Beedrill's Pokéball "Beedrill, come out!" In another flash of light, Beedrill took to the field again, buzzing rapidly at its opponent "Drii!"

Steelix roared loudly, causing the battle grounds to shake "Steelix, use Iron tail!" Steelix growled and the tip of its tail morphed into a shining black color, Steelix then swung its tail around and quickly slammed it into Beedrill, the giant bee Pokémon didn't even have a chance to dodge, but instead bought up its stingers in front of it, which glowed white, like a shield. Beedrill tried to hold off the attack, stingers struggling against the weight of Iron Snake's attack, before its arms gave out completely and Beedrill was sent crashing onto the ground, with Steelix's tail flattening its body.

"Beedrill!" Steelix lifted its tail and Ryan saw that his Beedrill was down for the count, swirls replaced the bugs normally red eyes. Ryan frowned slightly before recalling his Beedrill "You did good Beedrill, thank you." Forrest also recalled his Steelix and then made his way over to Ryan "That was a great battle, but better luck next time I guess." Ryan looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding "Yeah, next time I'll win. I'll be back for a rematch in 3 days, so be prepared!" Forrest smirked and then nodded "sure, I'll see you then." Ryan then whirled around and began walking towards the exit, with Nina and Chewy in tow.

"Sorry about your loss..."

"It's cool." Ryan replied with an indifferent tone as he folded his arms behind his head, Rattata had hopped off his shoulder and walked beside him after he did that. His destination was the Pokémon Center, Nina blinked "it's cool?" She repeated slowly "you just lost your first gym battle and your shrugging it off with indifference!"

"Well, I don't think it's that big a deal and I'm gonna battle him again anyway…"

"How are you gonna beat him?"

"Dunno yet, but first I gotta get these guys healed and then we're gonna train!"

**x-X-x**

"Now I need some sort of attack strategy against his Steelix..." Ryan was sitting on one of the benches on the PokéCenter's training grounds, Bulbasaur, Beedrill and Rattata were healed up nicely and the former two were released from their Pokéballs, keeping close to him as he studied the information on his Pokédex about said Iron Snake. "Grass attacks seem to be the only thing that can affect it normally, since you guys don't know any attacks that could heavily damage it..." Bulbasaur and Beedrill lowered their heads in shame and Ryan laughed sheepishly "b-but it's cool you guys, don't look so bummed! We'll beat Forrest without super effective attacks. I'll just need you guys to be able to hold out until Steelix is the last one standing."

"But how are they gonna do that? You've seen how strong Steelix is! It took out your Beedrill with just one move!"

"Well then, I'll just have to make them tougher." Ryan smirked and Nina just looked confused "tougher? I thought the term was stronger..."

"That too, but they can't be stronger if they can't take attacks. I mean, like you said Steelix managed to KO Beedrill without even trying and then Geodude took out Bulbasaur after like two attacks then with Rattata and Crobat it was a double knockout and even then, that was pitiful you guys are weak."

"Hey, now that's just rude!" Nina glared at Ryan as she watched the faces of his Pokémon fall at his harsh words "they tried their best!"

"Well, their best obviously wasn't good enough!" He snapped returning her glare before smiling "But that's okay, because with training, they can become better. Now, how to go about training... " Ryan scanned the training area briefly, watching as other trainers battled it out against one another.

"Hmm..."

"Use Gust, Butterfree!"

"Stand your ground Mankey, then use Focus Punch!"

Ryan watched as the boys Mankey stood strong against the forceful gust of wind the Butterfree had produced and then, once the attack show signs of slowing, Mankey attacked, charging at Butterfree and then slamming its glowing fist into the butterfly's torso. Ryan turned his head, for he was no longer interested in the battle, instead he'd gotten inspiration "I got it! I know how we're gonna beat Forrest and his Steelix!"

"You do?"

"Yeah, follow me!"

Ryan led Nina and the Pokémon to a more secluded area on the other side of the Pokémon Center "What's the big idea! What do you have planned Ryan?"

"Oh nothing, just this… Beedrill I want you to use Twinneedle on Bulbasaur!" Beedrill nodded and its stingers started glowing white "Dri!" Beedrill zoomed at Bulbasaur, who tensed and whipped out its vines to block "No! Bulbasaur, put your vines away." Bulbasaur paused, looking confused at Ryan's command and was unable to block itself from Beedrill's attack, causing the Seed Pokémon to get hit right between the eyes "Bulba!" Beedrill began to panic and started buzzing in apology, while Bulbasaur rubbed at the spot where it was hit "Beedrill, Twineedle again!" Beedrill turned its head towards Ryan, a questioning look appearing on its face.

"Ryan, what are you doing? Bulbasaur just got hurt! And what were you thinking, telling him not to block, how is he supposed to protect himself if he doesn't block?"

Ryan sighed and shook his head at the spazzing girl "the whole point of this training exercise is to not dodge. I want them to get hit, because that's just step one to my two part strategy."

"Two part strategy?" Nina echoed weakly and Ryan nodded "yep, the strategy that's gonna help us beat Steelix and make these guys stronger. Now Beedrill I want you to keep attacking Bulbasaur with everything you've got, while every ten minutes you guys switch roles, okay. Beedrill and Bulbasaur I want you two to do nothing but take these attacks until one of you either faint from exhaustion or I tell you guys to stop, alright?"

". . ." Bulbasaur looked at Ryan unsurely, confusion and doubt clearly on the starter's face "Bulba..." Ryan moved closer to the Seed Pokémon and bent down on one knee, placing a reassuring hand on Bulbasaur's head "I know this sounds really sketchy Bulbasaur and you might not like it, but trust me when I say this is gonna work." Ryan raised himself back to his feet and looked at Beedrill and then Bulbasaur, smiling softly "I promise, when you guys are done, you won't even recognize your own strength! Now, get to it you two, I'll be back in a few hours. C'mon Rattata" Ryan beckoned the purple mouse to hop onto his shoulder and then glanced back at Nina "Could you, do me a favor and watch over these two while they train? If Bulbasaur or Beedrill faint before I get back, can you get Nurse Joy to heal them?"

Nina gave him a weird look.

"Why? Where are you going?"

Ryan grinned mysteriously at her "well, I can't let Beedrill and Bulbasaur have all the fun, while Rattata here gets left out. She's a part of the team too you know, even if it is temporarily." He then walked off, with Nina watching his back curiously as he disappeared beyond the view of the Pokémon Center.

"_What the heck is he up to?_"

* * *

**The reason why Iron Tail is written differently, is because now in Best Wishes, the animation for it has been updated, making it look more like steel.  
Edited on 2/5/11: Just fixed up the grammar issues.  
**


	5. Training Days!

**Chapter 5**

"Alright Rattata, use Shock Wave one more time!" Rattata did as told leaping into the air and unleashed a powerful Shock Wave across the field, frying several Pokémon, which consisted of Pidgey, male Nidoran and Rattata, they were hiding out in the grass near Route 2 "Way to go Rattata, great job!" Ryan turned his head in the direction of the mouse that was panting softly as she stood, they had been here on this route for about a couple hours now and have been doing nothing but attacking other Pokémon and getting attacked by irritated Pokémon, it was like a never-ending cycle for the Rattata, fight the Pokémon, defeat the Pokémon, get attacked by the Pokémon and then repeat. "We've been at this for practically two hours now Ryan." Rattata groaned falling to the ground on her stomach "Can we take a break?" Ryan crossed his arms and then frowned slightly before nodding "Yeah, sure. I'll give you 5 minutes and then you're going back to training." Rattata nodded with a smile and then rolled onto her back, sighing softly, she was going to enjoy the tiny break she was given. Rattata was curious though, what was he planning. Why was he having her fight all these Pokémon and in Beedrill and Bulbasaur's case, each other, to the point of exhaustion? Rattata just shook her head and decided not to think she needed to enjoy this little rest he gave her before they have to start again. Turning her head slightly, she saw Ryan standing a ways away from her, glancing around the area thoughtfully, probably trying to figure out where to attack next.

"_I'm gonna have bruises in my bruises by the time this is over, I know it._"

"Times up Rattata." Ryan chimed and the mouse rose to her feet "Times up? But that couldn't have been five minutes already!" She gazed up at him in confusion but then noticed his gaze wasn't directed at her, but a boy that had run up to him, turning around Rattata studied the young man, he had dark brown hair and equally brown eyes, which were covered by coke bottle framed glasses and he wore a knee length white lab coat with a neutral red shirt and blue jeans underneath. "Hey, you with the Rattata."

"Yes?" Ryan raised an eyebrow at the boy and he fiddled with his glasses momentarily before pulling out a Pokéball "I'll give you this Lickitung for it." Ryan blinked and Rattata gasped "um… what?"

"That Rattata, I'll trade you this rare Lickitung for that Rattata you got there."

"Why?"

"Because I want it!"

"Then go fishing through the grass and find your own, c'mon Rattata lets go." Ryan turned around and started to walk off, with Rattata nodding and following closely behind but they paused at the boys next words "I know she can talk, that's why I want it." Ryan turned his head slightly to gaze backwards at the boy from the corner of his eye, he fiddled with his glasses again, adjusting them on his face once more before speaking "I've never seen a Rattata that was capable of understanding human speech and could talk as naturally as a human." His glasses gleamed dangerously as he grinned "I want to. . . conduct an _experiment_."

Rattata's eyes widened as a sharp jolt ran through her.

_Bright lights. There were bright lights that day. She was confused, why was she here? She didn't do anything wrong, did she? She was in a room, a large off colored grey room, she knew this place, they called it T-Zone. No one ever wanted to be sent here. "Old ll, this hurt, maybe shot do" Rattata could barely make out what the voice was saying and she could only see the blurry outline of something distinctly human shaped and in this human's hands was a weird device. It was pointed at her! But why wasn't she running? What was that device? It was glowing! She clamped her eyes shut, waiting for the light to die down, slowly opening her eyes, she felt nothing. . . seconds later there was pain, it felt like her insides were being fried then melted, but a soothing voice wafted through her ears in a reassuring manner "everything's fine. Don't worry, I'm just gonna do a little experiment."_

_Experiment…_

_Experiment._

_Experata!_

_—Attata_

_Rattata!_

"Hey Rattata, you alright?"

Snapping out of her odd trance, Rattata gasped fearfully and backed away slightly from him. "W-Where am I?" Holding out his arms in a defensive manner, Ryan responded "Hey, cool it Rattata, it's just me, Ryan" Rattata blinked slowly at Ryan before shaking her head "R-Ryan?" The brown haired boy nodded and Rattata shuddered before pitching forward and collapsing. Ryan was there to catch her "R-Rattata! Hey, wake up, what's wrong?" He gently shook her and she stirred in his arms.

"I. . . I don't feel so good" she mumbled weakly, slowly opening her eyes to look at him. She then focused on the other figure, the boy from before was still there. "So, what do you say, my rare Lickitung for that talking Rattata of yours?" Ryan glanced at the boy briefly before cradling said Rattata in his arms "I have to go. She's not feeling too good." The boy nodded, smirking slightly before putting his Pokéball away "alright, I'll let you go for now, but my offer still stands." Ryan just rolled his eyes before walking off, waiting until he was out of ear shot and sight of that boy before speaking "Hey Rattata, what was that all about?"

"I… I don't know, I was fine just a few minutes ago." She murmured looking up at him thoughtfully "I think it was something he said. I saw something just now." Ryan halted and stared at her questioningly "saw something? Like a vision?" Rattata shook her head "no, not a vision. . . I think it was a memory, because I felt like I've been there before."

"A memory? Well, what did you see?"

"It. . . it wasn't really clear, so I'm not sure." She lied averting her gaze "but I heard a voice, it told me, that it was doing a little experiment." She frowned thoughtfully "whatever that meant." Ryan shrugged as he followed the path back towards the Pokémon Center "well, it's not like I'd know. I guess we'll go check on Bulbasaur and Beedrill's progress, it's been about a couple hours, so they should be exhausted!" Rattata could only stare at the boy in confusion while he grinned excitedly.

"Hey Nina, we're back!"

"Bulba. Bulba. Bulba! Bulbasauuur!"

"Piikachu!"

"Drii. Drii!"

"Nice one Bulbasaur!"

Ryan stepped into the area where he had left his two Pokémon and was shocked to find that they weren't training, but having lunch! They were seated at one of the picnic tables nearby, there was a tray full of food sitting in front of Nina and beside her was one large bowl of Pokémon food, which Bulbasaur, Chewy and Beedrill shared. Ryan frowned as he watched Nina and the Pokémon giggle childishly as some trick Bulbasaur did with his vines, juggling about 4 pellets of Pokémon food, tossing them into the air and then proceeded to catch them all in his mouth. Ryan felt his eye twitch slightly as he watched them goof off instead of train, in his arms Rattata felt his body began to tremble and she blinked up questioningly at him "Ryan?"

"Grr. WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU GUYS DOING!" Nina and the Pokémon all froze and became silent, while the only noise emitted from them, was the sound of Bulbasaur harshly gulping down the food in its mouth. Nina whirled around to face Ryan, since her back was to him, and laughed nervously "Hehe Ryan! When did you and Rattata get back? Are you guys done training? How was it?" Ryan glared at the orange haired girl "Don't change the subject, what were you guys doing? I specifically told them to train, yet what do I find when I get here, you guys are goofing around with food!"

No longer feeling sheepish, Nina glared back at Ryan "Hey mister bossy pants, you need to watch your tone! And what's the big deal anyway, these guys were practically fainted from exhaustion a few minutes ago, I was doing them a favor and giving them a break! Why are you so serious about this anyway, their Pokémon with feelings, not machines!" Ryan just grit his teeth before looking away, moments later however he released a sigh "I just hate goofing off during training, alright, I believe it messes up the flow. My Dad used to goof off a lot when he would teach me stuff and I didn't it."

"Well why didn't you just say that in the first place instead of blowing up on us!" Nina rolled her eyes before shaking her head and turning around to grab a sandwich from the lunch tray, handing it to Ryan "Put Rattata down and come and eat, I'm sure you guys are hungry. . . or should I be giving this to Rattata, since all you did was run your mouth, while she did the hard work." Ryan just snatched the sandwich from her hand with a scowl and bit into it and Rattata jumped out of his arms, sidling up beside Beedrill, nibbling on the Pokémon food.

"After I'm finished eating" Ryan began slowly through a mouth full of food "we're going back to training." He swallowed "no ifs, ands, or buts about it either, got it?" The three Pokémon nodded their heads in unison before going back to chowing down "good." Nina just shook her head and sighed before grabbing herself a sandwich and biting into it as well, while Chewy made nice with the other Pokémon while he ate from the large shared bowl. About 30 minutes later, when everyone was finished eating and allowed their food to settle, Ryan got back to training. This time he'd have two of the Pokémon attack the lone one so after every 30 minutes, the duo would switch, from Rattata and Beedrill VS Bulbasaur, to Bulbasaur and Beedrill VS Rattata, to Bulbasaur and Rattata VS Beedrill, they continued to til it was late in the night and even til after Nina and Chewy had retired for the evening, Ryan had finally called it a night when it was nearing 1 in the morning and Nurse Joy suggested he called it quits and allow his Pokémon a nice long rest and allowed himself to get some sleep because he was over working himself and them. Ryan agreed and handed his Pokémon over to Nurse Joy and then stalked to the room he and Nina were to share, falling asleep instantly.

**x-X-x**

"RYAN SUMMERS!" Around 10 in the morning, the door to Ryan and Nina's room burst open and in marched an absolutely livid Nina, with Chewy on her shoulders and Bulbasaur, Beedrill and Rattata following closely behind her. Sleepily, Ryan sat up in his bed, still in his clothes from yesterday. His normally messy brown hair, looking messier than ever and flopping in his face, for his usually secured headband had loosened and fallen to his neck, his brown eyes still glazed over from his sleep as he warily tried to make out the green and orange blob in front of him "Nina?" He blinked slowly before rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and the drool off his chin "what…" he paused to release a huge yawn, arching his back and stretching his arms until he heard the satisfying crack of his stiff muscles "time is it?"

"What time is it? That's all you can ask after what you did!" Nina was glaring at him angrily, like he kicked Chewy or something. Ryan blinked in confusion "after what I did? What did I do?" Nina crossed her arms and leered accusingly at him "Nurse Joy told me you were up training til late last night and that you were training your Pokémon to the point of exhaustion and only stopped when she told you to."

"Yeah, so?"

"So? So? _So_, you're not supposed to do that when you train Pokémon!"

"Eh? It's cool Nina, they didn't mind." Ryan peered around her to glance at his Pokémon by her feet "Did you guys?" The irritated frown on Bulbasaur's face said otherwise. Ryan laughed sheepishly before shrugging "I honestly don't see what the deal is, so I trained them til they were tired, beaten and battered, what's the problem?" He trailed his eyes up to Nina's trembling form and she pointed a finger angrily at him "you slave driver! Pokémon are your friends, you should treat them like tools!"

"Tools?" Ryan blinked again and then scowled "Who said I was treating them like tools? So I went a little far on their training and they became exhausted. That just means their getting stronger, if they keep working til the point of exhaustion, they'll get used to it and won't faint as much. That's what happens when you train, duh."

"Well, that's not the way I see it. I think you should train your Pokémon with love and care and stop when they are ready, not until their ready to collapse!"

"Hn, well I think that's an easy way out for people who want Pokémon with mediocre skills." Nina bristled slightly at that "I was always taught to utilize a Pokémon's skill to your advantage and that's what I'm doing."

"Utilizing their skills to your advantage? But you haven't been doing any of that! You've been having them beat each other up until they collapse!" She exclaimed throwing her arms in the air angrily and Ryan just heaved an irritated sigh "what part of _two_ _part training plan_ do you not seem to understand? That was only the first half of training and besides, a little tough love never hurt anyone." Nina just leered angrily at him and Ryan rolled his eyes in response before grabbing his bag from off the floor and standing "I'm gonna go freshen up, Bulbasaur, Rattata and Beedrill I want you guys to meet me outside in about 20 minutes." He walked towards the door and then glanced back at the leering Nina "would you mind feeding them for me? Thanks." He then disappeared down the hall and towards the men's room.

Thirty minutes later, Ryan was standing outside at the training grounds they had claimed yesterday, a half eaten apple in his hand, he stared down at his three Pokémon thoughtfully while he chewed "Alright, Bulbasaur stay on the side, Beedrill and Rattata get into battle positions." Beedrill and Rattata did as told, standing opposite of each other on the training field "Alright, now start fighting you two!" Beedrill was the first to attack, charging at Rattata with Twineedle, the mouse dodged and retaliated with Shock Wave "Dodge Beedrill and use X-Scissor! Wait for the attack to land and then use Hyper Fang Rattata!" The two Pokémon did as told; Beedrill's stingers began to glow and he crossed them in an X formation while speeding towards Rattata, who allowed the attack to hit her squarely in the face, now instead of being blow back or flinching like Nina assumed, Rattata just stood there unmoving and then struck once the attack wore off, sinking her teeth into Beedrill on one of its stingers.

"Now stop both of you. How do you feel? Did getting struck by that X-Scissor hurt? Or what about when Rattata bit you Beedrill?" The two Pokémon slowly shook their heads "It's weird, I mean the attack hurt but it's like I hardly felt it, I mean it didn't hurt as much as before. . . I guess because I kept getting hit by it yesterday." Ryan shot a victorious grin at Nina "see, I know what I'm doing. That was a trick my Dad taught me when I was younger, he used to train his Pokémon just like this." Nina just rolled her eyes, regardless of if it worked or not, she didn't like the idea of beating a Pokémon to the point of exhaustion. Ryan turned to Bulbasaur, who was eying Beedrill and Rattata with wide eyes "Now you see what they did there Bulbasaur? Beedrill and Rattata utilized their speed during this battle right?" Bulbasaur nodded slowly "right, so everything they just did, I want you to do the exact opposite." Bulbasaur looked up at Ryan with a confused stare and he began to elaborate "Bulbasaur, your abilities are all well rounded, you're not too fast or too slow, you're just right and because of that Bulbasaur you can't move as fast as they can, I mean you can try, but why make you something you're not? You're specialties lie in your defense while Beedrill and Rattata rely on speed but that's alright, because if we keep this up, your guys will be like an army of tanks in no time!"

"B-Bulba?"

"Tanks? You want them to be like tanks?"

"What's a Tank?"

"Tanks are big metal cars made to take hits, their strong and can take all kinds of attacks, but they can still attack and hold their own if need be, they become their own devastating force, like a moving wall. Tanks are a force to be reckoned with." Ryan explained to the curious Rattata "So, you want us to be like that, like tanks?" Ryan nodded "Yep, I want you guys to be able to take blows, and hold your own but still be able to fight back and threaten your opponents offensively. And the first way to do that is to get you guys to withstand hits and then use strong moves to take down the enemy. That's why I was having you guys attack each other all yesterday." Nina gazed at Ryan thoughtfully; leer no longer on her face "I… I guess that makes sense when you think about it and it's your style I suppose, but don't think I'll agree with your training methods Ryan. I still find it cruel the way you make them fight til they drop."

"I don't think it's cruel, I think its fine. I mean that's the way I learned." He shrugged folding his arms behind his head. Nina blinked at his words and then narrowed her eyes curiously at him "that's how you learned what?" Ryan stiffened and then grinned nervously "Oh, nothing important, just stuff my Dad taught me as a kid." Nina just rolled her eyes before grumbling to Chewy "Jeeze, if he didn't want to talk about it, why bring it up in the first place." The yellow mouse just grinned reassuringly "Pi-kachu."

Ryan continued to grin, until his gaze landed on Rattata, who was staring blankly down at the ground below her feet "Oh yeah, that reminds me! Hey Rattata, come here for a second." He squatted down low and looked at her as she ran towards him, a questioning look on her face "well, I was just thinking. Since you've been hanging out with us for the past week and your gonna participate in my gym battle tomorrow, how would you like to join us on my journey?" Rattata's eyes widened when he pulled out an enlarged Pokéball from his belt and held it out to her "I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to, but I just thought I'd ask cause I find it a bit weird for you to be tagging along with us for no reason. . . but then again, that's what Nina's doing isn't it?" He grinned goofily, ignoring said artists indignant cries "plus earlier you had that weird spaced out look on your face and you know if you travel with someone, you might unlock your memories. . ."

"Memories? What memories?"

Ryan ignored Nina and continued to stare at Rattata "But only if you want to, it's okay if you refuse. No pressure at all." Rattata glanced at the Pokéball and then at Ryan thoughtfully as the events of earlier today and the days before flashed in her head, she blinked once before nodding slowly "okay, I'll join... but only cause now I can be your official bodyguard." Ryan grinned "bodyguard… right." Rattata just returned his smile and then tapped the middle of the Pokéball, she was sucked in instantly and captured with a light ding, once confirmed, Ryan let her out of the ball.

"Awesome! Glad to have you aboard Sawyer!"

"Sawyer? Is that my name now?"

"Why'd you call her that?"

"Cause, it's a play on of the attack Hyper Fang. She's Sawyer, because her teeth can saw through wood, get it? Teeth. Saw through wood. Sawyer. Funny right?" The group shared a collective moment of silence and stared blankly at Ryan, who laughed sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head "hey, I thought it was funny!" Nina snorted "that joke was so corny. Let's go get some lunch before he tries to come up with another one" Chewy along with Bulbasaur, Beedrill and the newly nicknamed and captured Sawyer nodded in agreement before following the orange haired artist inside, leaving Ryan alone. He huffed and slowly followed after them, grumbling to himself "they wouldn't know a good joke if it bit them in the butt." After tomorrow, one more day for training, they'd be facing Forrest for a rematch and this time, he'd win.


	6. Rematch! Vs DragonBreath!

**Chapter 6**

"Okay, you guys ready? Today is our rematch against Forrest. We're gonna beat that Steelix this time around right? Especially now with Bulbasaur's new move he learned yesterday, I told you guys the training would work." From her spot on Ryan's shoulder, Sawyer nodded determinedly with Beedrill and Bulbasaur doing the same. Ryan smiled and then recalled the two before glancing at Nurse Joy "Thanks a lot for healing them Nurse Joy." The pink haired woman smiled "It's no problem Ryan, good luck in your match!" He gave a curt nod in response and then glanced at Nina, who was doodling in her sketch book while waiting for Ryan by the entrance of the Pokémon Center. Earlier this morning, Ryan had decided to get in some last minute training for the rematch against Forrest and that's why he was getting his Pokémon back from Nurse Joy, now he was ready. Ryan clenched his fist determinedly as he exited the Center with Nina in tow "_we're definitely gonna win this time around, no doubt!_"

"Welcome back Ryan, are you ready for our rematch?" Forrest questioned as soon as they stepped through the gym doors "Yeah, we're ready for you this time Forrest, so prepare to fork over that Badge when this is over!" Forrest smirked and grabbed a ball from his belt and tossed it down "we'll see about that. Geodude go!" The floating rock Pokémon appeared in a sparkling flash of light, hovering slightly above the field its arms poised and ready to fight "GEO!" Ryan nodded and then pulled out his own Pokéball, tossing it down onto the field "Beedrill, I choose you!" Beedrill also appeared in a sparkling flash of light, hovering above the field much like Geodude, its red eyes glared at its opponent, stingers also poised to fight "Driii!"

"I'll start first this time!" Forrest shouted before pointing at Beedrill "Sandstorm Geodude!" Geodude nodded curtly before lifting its arms and summoning a thick whirling tornado of sand at Beedrill, it instantly surrounded the bug type, covering it on all sides. Beedrill began to panic as it buzzed rapidly around the column of sand that blocked its view from the outside world trying to find a way out "Now Geodude, use Mega Punch!" Geodude darted confidently into the Sandstorm with its fist glowing a blinding white and with a fierce 'Geo' it smashed its fist into Beedrill's torso, sending the bug type flying out of the Sandstorm and into one of the nearby rocks on the field, with enough force to cause it to break "Beedrill!" Ryan scanned the field for his Pokémon, waiting for the smoke around it to clear away "D-Drii." Beedrill buzzed as it slowly lifted itself from the rocks, shaking off the feelings from Mega Punch "you alright Beedrill?" Beedrill nodded slightly before flexing its stingers "Drii! Drii!" From her spot on Ryan's shoulder, Sawyer spoke up, pumping one of her small paws in the air "You can do it Beedrill, don't give up!"

"Alright, now use X-Scissor!"

Beedrill then charged at Geodude, its stingers glowing light blue once Beedrill was in range, it crossed its stingers in an X formation and slashed Geodude across the face, knocking the floating rock backwards "Nice shot!" Ryan cheered grinning "now, use Twineedle!" Beedrill then followed up with said attack, speeding at Geodude with its stingers pointing out threateningly, causing Forrest to smirk "Heh, alright, dodge with Dig Geodude!" However, before Twineedle could hit its mark, Geodude disappeared underneath the ground; leaving Beedrill to jab at nothing but thin air. Ryan grit his teeth at Geodude's disappearance and he called out to his bug Pokémon "Beedrill, get higher in the air! Don't stray too close to the ground, move in when I say so." Beedrill nodded and raised itself higher above the gym floor, almost to the point where it practically touched the ceiling "_Heh, from all the way up there Geodude has no shot in reaching Beedrill._" The brunette smirked smugly to himself as he watched Forrest glare at the ground, scanning the gym floors and then glancing up at where Beedrill was located "What's wrong Forrest?" He called out to the shorter brunette "Stumped on how your Geodude is going to hit my Beedrill from all the way up there?"

Forrest just shook his head and smirked in response "Nope, I know _exactly_ how to reach Beedrill, but you get points for effort. Geodude, I want you to Dig a circle around the field." Popping out from its hole directly under Beedrill, Geodude nodded and then dove into the ground, popping out of the hole to create another one, creating a large circle of holes underneath the floating Beedrill, from its view high above, Beedrill gazed down at the battlefield curiously as several holes were soon created and then connected to form a circle, along with the lone hole in the middle, it looked like a giant eye was staring back up at it. Geodude then disappeared into the ground one last time and stayed there after completing the circle of circles and Ryan narrowed his eyes at Forrest, what was the boy up to?

"I don't get it, how is a circle of holes going to help him reach Beedrill?" Nina murmured to Chewy, who shrugged, he was just as lost as she. Nina chewed her lip thoughtfully as she tried to figure out Forrest's plan, those holes were obviously going to be used to launch the attack that would probably knock Beedrill down to where Geodude could reach, but what exactly could he use. She stood there glaring at the holes on the field thoughtfully before her eyes widened upon figuring out what Forrest had planned "Ryan! You have to get Beedrill out from under those holes now! Forrest is planning to use—"

"Sandstorm Geodude!" Forrest cut off Nina's warning with a shout of his own, revealing the key point in his plan, from below Beedrill, it faintly heard Geodude's cry, before whirlwinds of sand shot out from the several holes surrounding the bug, trapping Beedrill in an extremely large twister of sand, but it didn't stop there, from the hole in the middle one last final twister of sand shot out, but this time Geodude used it to forcefully propel itself into air at Beedrill "Now, use Mega Punch!" While it was zooming at Beedrill, Geodude cocked its glowing fist back in preparation "Twineedle Beedrill!" Beedrill nodded and buzzed once before thrusting its stingers out and flying to meet Geodude's attack head on. Both Pokémon met each other in mid air and slammed their respective attacks into one another with enough force behind them to cause an explosion, Beedrill's Twineedle hitting Geodude square in the head, while Geodude's Mega Punch slammed into Beedrill's torso, both attacks sent the other flying. Beedrill hit the roof of the gym with a loud crash and Geodude was slammed back into the gym floors, thick clouds of smoke kicked up around both Pokémon as their trainers waited with baited breath to see the outcome of their attacks.

Several seconds passed by before the smoke cleared and both trainers eyes widened as they were finally able to see the results of the battle. Geodude was lying in its self made crater with swirly eyes, moaning in pain, while Beedrill slowly floated towards the ground, panting heavily as it glared at the knocked out floating rock. From her spot above in the stand, Nina cheered loudly "alright, Beedrill won!" Ryan grinned proudly and then patted Beedrill, who weakly floated over to its trainer, gently on the head "you did great Beedrill, you deserve a nice rest." Ryan then recalled the bug Pokémon, seeing as how it practically teetered on the edge of unconsciousness. He then looked up at Forrest, who was rolling his next Pokéball in between his index finger and thumb "not bad Ryan it seems your training didn't go to waste."

Ryan grinned in response "thanks, I told you we weren't gonna lose this rematch." Forrest smirked "so it seems, but you've only managed to knock out my Geodude, don't count me out just yet. Crobat go!" The young brown haired man tossed down his second Pokéball and an all too familiar purple bat Pokémon appeared in a flash of light, Ryan glanced at Sawyer, who nodded and hopped off his shoulder and ran onto the battle field, glaring up at Crobat "Croo." It sneered and Sawyer bared her teeth in response "I'm gonna beat you this time buddy." Crobat's sneer just got wider and it gave her a challenging look that said 'try me.'

"Okay, we start this time. Sawyer use Hyper Fang!" Sawyer lunged at Crobat, her teeth glinting threateningly in the light.

"Counter with SonicBoom!"

Crobat responded by flapping it wings at such high speed that they became nothing more of a blur, a cyclone of wind and white circles were soon sent flying at Sawyer, knocking the mouse Pokémon backwards. Sawyer shook her head, hardly unaffected by the attack and began to charge at Crobat again, growling loudly as she did so "Shock Wave!" Ryan exclaimed, pointing at the large purple bat as Sawyer's tail began to crackle and spark with yellow electricity, which then turned to blue as the beam was fired at Crobat, striking the flying type dead center.

"Crobat! You okay?"

"Cro." Crobat gave a curt nod as it shook off the after effects of the lingering electricity from Sawyer's Shock Wave and then flew at the mouse with blinding speed "Wing Attack!" Crobat's two top wings glowed a brilliant white hue as it zoomed in towards Sawyer, smacking the mouse harshly with its wings and causing both she and Ryan to experience a fit of Déjà Vu as the wings repeatedly slapped the mouse before launching her into the air. "Hey, didn't this happen before?" Nina questioned before turning her head to look at Chewy "Pikachu. Pika Pi-Kapi." Chewy mumbled before glancing directly at the readers, causing Nina to blink in confusion "what are you staring at Chewy?" In response, the Pikachu just grinned sheepishly and turned back towards the battle "Pii-kachu!"

"Double-Edge!"

"Supersonic!"

Sawyer charged at Crobat, at trail of yellow light following behind her, and she smashed into the giant bat with a forceful tackle, that sent it skidding backwards in the air. Unfortunately Crobat righted itself in the air and still managed to fire off the Supersonic attack, it opened its large mouth and screeched, causing several transparent circles to appear and hit Sawyer, causing her eyes to become swirled in confusion. Ryan gasped "Sawyer!" He watched as the mouse dizzily began to teeter and totter on her feet, Forrest grinned and pointed at the Rattata "now Crobat finish with Wing Attack!" Crobat darted at the dazed Sawyer, its wings striking the mouse harshly and sending the mouse Pokémon flying back into Ryan's arms "Sawyer! You alright?" She just groaned unintelligibly, her eyes clearly swirled.

"Well, that's one down." Forrest smirked and Crobat mimicked it haughtily "Croo." Ryan scoffed before pulling out his next Pokéball "Bulbasaur use Leaf Storm!" The Seed Pokémon appeared in a flash of light, the green bulb on its back already starting to glow brightly "Bulba!" Bulbasaur then fired the cyclone of leaves from its back, the green twister shooting towards Crobat "Wing Attack!" Crobat's wings glowed white again and it faced the leafy cyclone head on, cutting straight through the attack like it was butter and then kept going, aiming to hit Bulbasaur and Ryan bit back a smirk "heh, I was hoping you'd do that. Bulbasaur, use Vine Whip!" Bulbasaur nodded, waiting for Crobat to get closer and then fired out its signature vines from its back, the twin vines grabbed onto Crobat's glowing wings tightly, causing the bat Pokémon to falter "C-Cro!" Ryan then thrust out one of his arms with a wide grin "Now, toss it!"

"Bul-Baaaaa!" With all the strength it could muster, Bulbasaur whirled around once and with a powerful swing it sent the poison type flying into one of the fields' rocks, which it smashed through due to sheer force from the throw, much like Geodude had done to Beedrill earlier. When the dust that had kicked up from Crobat cleared, the bat Pokémon had swirls in its eyes and it twitched lightly from its spot on the ground, surrounded by broken rocks "C-Crobat." It managed to hiss before Forrest recalled the fallen bat with a slight smile "You did a good job Crobat, return." He then glanced at Ryan with an appraising look "So, you've managed to knock out two of my Pokémon and I got one, I'd say you're doing a lot better than before, but don't get your hopes up yet Ryan. Steelix is my big brother's strongest Pokémon and it's not often we lose!" He dug into his pockets and pulled out his last and final Pokéball "Steelix go!"

Steelix instantly appeared on the field, materializing from its Pokéball in a flash and producing a loud shattering roar. Bulbasaur glared up at the giant Iron Snake Pokémon, while it gazed down at him indifferently. Forrest decided to start this time "Steelix, use Bind!" Steelix roared and then lashed out with its tail, aiming to wrap Bulbasaur up and bind it into submission, but the Seed type, nor Ryan were having any of that "Dodge Bulbasaur, then use Leaf Storm!" Bulbasaur quickly leaped out of the way and then ran up the length of Steelix, its back glowing brightly as it did "Bulbasaur!" With a cry, it fired the Leaf Storm, hitting the Iron Snake right between the eyes, this cause Steelix to recoil back and shake its head from the pain, its tail began lashing out as it did so and Forrest used that to his advantage "Iron Tail!" Once Steelix was done having its fit, the large snake like Pokémon growled and its large tail glinted briefly before turning a shining black color. With another loud growl, Steelix bought its tail down on Bulbasaur before Ryan even had the chance to tell it to dodge, the force of the impact kicked up a brief dust cloud, which covered the gyms floor for a few moments before dissipating. Revealing Bulbasaur was unharmed, in fact the Seed Pokémon vanished entirely from the field.

"Bulbasaur!"

"Where'd it go?"

Both trainers scanned the field for said Pokémon, before their attention snapped towards one of the many leftover holes produced by Geodude, Vines shot out from one of them and they smacked Steelix straight across the nose. The Iron Snake's head lurched backwards from the pain and Bulbasaur jumped out of the hole "Bulba!" Ryan sighed in relief as Bulbasaur landed in front of him, unharmed "I'm glad you're okay Bulbasaur, you had me worried there for a second buddy." Bulbasaur gave a slight nod and then turned his attention back to Steelix, the giant Snake Pokémon looked beyond mad as it glared down its nose at Bulbasaur, a deep irritated growl rumbled low in its throat "DragonBreath Steelix!" Steelix opened its mouth and out came a thick blueish white beam of air, shooting towards Bulbasaur "Counter with Leaf Storm!" Bulbasaur quickly summoned its cyclone of spiraling leaves, they met the DragonBreath attack in mid air, but the leafy cyclone proved to be no match against Steelix's DragonBreath and the leaves got destroyed in the process, while the attack kept on until it engulfed Bulbasaur in a blueish white light. This caused Bulbasaur to cry out as it was struck by the strong attack. Once it subsided Bulbasaur was left panting and wincing "Bulbasaur! You okay?" Bulbasaur clenched its teeth and nodded, shaking away the pain "Bulba!"

"Okay, we don't wanna get hit by another one of those, so Bulbasaur use that awesome attack you learned yesterday!" Ryan pointed at Steelix "Seed Bomb!" Bulbasaur opened its mouth and twin white orbs appeared, then the orbs shot out, two splitting into several glowing seeds "Block with Iron Tail!" Steelix bought up its now black shining tail in front of its face, protecting itself from the explosive attack, said attack collided with Iron Tail and caused a massive explosion! Steelix cried out when its tail was struck, smoke slowly rose from its tail, which shifted back to normal after it took the Seed Bomb attack. Steelix grumbled as it lowered its tail back to the ground "Seed Bomb huh? We'll hafta watch out for that one won't we?" Ryan grinned cheekily "Yeah, Bulbasaur learned it yesterday while we were training for our rematch, his other attacks might not have much effect, but I'm sure this one does!"

"Hm, well I guess we should end this then huh?"

"You bet, be prepared to fork over that badge after this last attack!"

"We'll see about that. Steelix lets end this with DragonBreath!"

"Bulbasaur Seed Bomb and make this one super strong!"

Both Pokémon opened their mouth's with their respective cries to charge their respective finishing moves. The thick blueish white beam of air charging in Steelix's mouth and twin white orbs appearing in Bulbasaur's, simultaneously both trainers shouted go and the attacks were launched, they collided in mid air and created a large and powerful explosion, the force from both attacks sent both Pokémon flying back, even the extremely heavy Steelix, both Pokémon wound up crashing backwards onto the gym floor, dust picking up and covering them briefly before it cleared and both Pokémon stood on their respective sides in front of their trainers, leering at one another. Steelix's low grumble echoed through the gym as well as Bulbasaur's fierce growling, both trainers heaved sighs of relief when they saw the Pokémon standing and Forrest was the first to speak up "That was a close one, now Steelix use—" Forrest was cut off by his own Pokémon, when Steelix gave one last low grumble and then pitched forward onto the gym floor, its eyes blanking out briefly before they turned into swirls. Forrest's mouth dropped open in shock and Ryan's eyes widened in disbelief before a large grin split his face "we did it! We did it! Bulbasaur, you're the best!" Said Seed Pokémon smiled back at his trainer and jumped into the boys arms, nuzzling his cheek "Bulba. Bulbasaur!"

"That was so cool! Bulbasaur, you were amazing!"

Nina came bounding over to Ryan with her special sketchbook in her hands "Look at this! That moment was so intense, I had to draw it!" Opening the blue book to the page she was talking about, Nina showed off her latest drawing, which featured a back view of Bulbasaur and a frontal view Steelix charging their respective attacks, ready to fire "That's amazing Nina." Ryan whistled in awe and Bulbasaur and Sawyer nodded in agreement, the orange haired girl smiled at the compliments and closed her book when she saw Forrest making his way over to them "Congratulations Ryan, that was an awesome battle. I am proud to present you with Pewter City Gym's Boulder Badge." In Forrest's hand was Pewter City's Gym Badge, it was shaped into the form of a gray octagon, simple yet stylish. Ryan accepted the badge with a thankful smile and placed it into his badge case and then recalled both Bulbasaur and Sawyer "Thanks a lot Forrest." Forrest nodded "good luck on your journey, there will be plenty of tough challenges ahead."

"Yeah and thanks again!" With a small wave, Ryan and Nina left the Pewter City gym for their final time and headed straight towards the Pokémon Center, so Ryan could get his Pokémon healed "So, where should we go next?" The brunette mumbled aloud as they walked towards the Center "Well, according to the Guidebook, Cerulean City is where the next Gym is." Nina pointed to an area past the Pokémon Center "we can take Route 3 there and pass through Mt. Moon to get there."

Ryan scratched his head as he stared at Nina "when the heck did you get a Guidebook?" Nina felt a sweat drop form on her head "I got it while you were training with your Pokémon yesterday, I figured I'd get one since we're going to be traveling together from now on."

"Who said that we were going to be traveling together?" He nonchalantly folded his arms behind his head and glanced at her flatly "you're pretty bold for a girl." Nina's cheeks suddenly went red in embarrassment and she began to sputter "W-Well, I just thought that. . . err. . .umm" after a beat of silence, Ryan suddenly burst into a fit of snickers at her loss of words "It's cool Nina, we can travel together." The green eyed girls eyes widened and she gasped softly "r-really, you won't mind me tagging along?"

"Well, I mean you've followed me this far, why not?" He shrugged and she squealed, hugging Chewy tightly "this is wonderful! I can't wait to see what kind of awesome adventures we'll have!" Ryan just smirked and nodded in response, he too couldn't wait to see what they would run into, especially now since he had won his first official Gym Badge, pulling out the badge case, Ryan gazed at the octagonal shape of the Boulder Badge with a swell of pride "_One down, seven to go._"

* * *

**Now, for the next chapter, I will be introducing one of Ryan's two rivals in this fic, but since I'm running on empty for creative rival ideas, I want you guys to give me some. I want one boy and one girl, not two boys and not two girls, one of each. I want details for Personality and Appearance not just one liners, give me a paragraph or two, make your character stand out to me, make your character seem realistic and interesting enough for me to want to pick them. I would like these to be sent to me via PM. Not by review. PM. Now if you're interested enough to read through all this and send me an OC, then dammit, could you at least drop me a review? Not that not giving a review will bar your character from being chosen, but I mean if you've read this far, then why not. There is no first come first serve, I will choose the ones I find most interesting and have at least met my criteria. If I like your OC and plan on using it in the chapters, then I'll be PMing you back, and one of the two characters will make their appearance in the next chapter, but if not, then you don't get a PM, that clear?****  
**

Name:  
Age: (10 to 13)  
Gender:  
Hometown: (No Isshu region allowed. Anything else is fine.)  
Appearance:  
Personality:  
Team 1: (Team 1 is what the trainer will have when they first meet and subsequent visits. No Eeveelutions on Team 1, I'm sorry but just no. Eevee is so overused its annoying, give me some variety please. Also only Pokémon from their region please, now if they evolve into something not of the region, then that's fine. I want Pokémon that's native to your region. So no Pachirisu's if your character lives in Hoenn. But since you're character is a rival and is traveling here in Kanto for obvious reasons. I will allow only 1 or 2 Pokemon from their Region, if they're not originally from Kanto. 1 of them has to be a starter the second can be anything you wish. The rest of their team are Kanto only.)  
Team 2: (Team 2 is their final team. For the league. Minimum is 2 Eeveelutions, because unless you can give me a legit and plausible reason as to why your character has 6 Eeveelutions on their team, then you better stick with your two Eevee limit.)  
Other: This is just for miscellaneous info that couldn't be fit in the sections above. Quirks, hobbies, likes, dislikes, etc.


	7. Eyes on the Prize!

**Chapter 7**

"Use Sand Tomb Sandshrew!"

"Sand!" Sandshrew eyes began to glow a deep yellow, causing the earth beneath Ekans to shift and turn into sand, trapping the unsuspecting snake off guard as the lower half of its body got sucked in, it wriggled around helplessly with a violent hiss while leering at Ryan and Sandshrew "Heh, now Pokéball go!" Ryan tossed the red and white ball at the purple snake and watched as it sucked the creature in and dropped to the ground wobbling, a few seconds later it dinged in conformation and Ryan smirked before picking up the ball "And Ekans makes four. Not bad if I say so myself. . . thanks a lot Sandshrew, return!" Ryan recalled the Pokémon and then began making his way back towards the Pokémon Center situated in Route 3, right before the entrance of Mt. Moon with Nina following right behind. "Ryan, why are you catching all these Pokémon?" She held up a hand and began to count on her fingers "first it was that female Nidoran, then Spearow, the Sandshrew and now this Ekans, why catch them all if your just gonna send them to Professor Oak?"

"Because Nina, I'm a trainer and catching Pokémon is what I'm supposed to do! Plus it's always good to have different types in reserve, you never know when you might need to switch up your team a little to throw off your opponents." He recited it as though he were a teacher explaining to a student about a troubling problem they couldn't solve. "I guess. . . that makes sense" she muttered tilting her head slightly in confusion, with Chewy mimicking her "Pikachu?"

"I mean look at our battle with Forrest, aside from Bulbasaur, none of my other Pokémon stood much of a chance against his Steelix, but luckily we won the battle in the end, but next time I'll be ready for any gym leader and their Pokémon! My next goal is to catch a water type, once we get past Mt. Moon, cause the guide book says the routes around Cerulean City have ponds and stuff right?" Nina nodded, realizing where this was going "and you're gonna go catch you a water type when we get there?" She asked and he grinned "you got it!" The duo then entered the Pokémon Center, having caught the Ekans in an area nearby so the walk wasn't long.

Ryan headed straight towards the front desk and handed over Sandshrew's Pokéball "Hey Nurse Joy, if it's not too much trouble, could you heal Sandshrew for me as well?" The pink haired woman nodded and Ryan thanked her with a smile before heading over towards the Pokémon Transporter unit, placing his recently captured Ekans' Pokéball in the slot before setting its coordinates to Professor Oak, he and Nina watched as the ball materialized out of thin air, disappearing into the machine heading straight for the old man's laboratory. This was the third Pokémon he had sent to the Professor within the span of an hour, having caught Spearow and Nidoran earlier back to back, Ekans however was more of a challenging find, the snake Pokémon was very good at hiding and it consumed a lot of time looking for the poison type.

"So when are we going to head into Mt. Moon?"

"Probably sometime this late afternoon, if we go near nightfall, we'll probably run into less people and more tired and sleeping Pokémon, making my next captures all the more easier." The boy said rubbing his hands together greedily at the thought of capturing new Pokémon "Don't catch too many now, or else you won't be able to train with them all." Nina warned, but the boy just waved her off "don't worry, I'm not gonna catch everything I see, I promise. But what about you Nina? We've gotten this far and all you have is Chewy, aren't you gonna catch some more Pokémon?"

After a moment of silence, Nina spoke up "of course I'm gonna catch some more Pokémon! I just haven't seen any that I wanna catch yet. Not every person is going to catch every Pokémon they see." She argued and he responded with a light sigh "alright, alright, no need to bite my head off. I was just making a suggestion." Scowling lightly, Nina roughly grabbed the boys arm "h-hey, what are you doing?" He asked, stumbling forward as Nina forcefully dragged him outside of the Center "It doesn't matter, just come on." She grumbled once they made it to a grassy area only a few meters away from the PokéCenter. Scanning the area with narrowed eyes, Nina released Ryan's arm and began shuffling through the grass, looking for something. Ryan stood off to the side smirking slightly "you're looking for a Pokémon aren't you?"

"Hush!" She hissed and Ryan's smirk just grew as he stood off to the side, watching her dig through the grass for something, there was a light rustle to her left and a pink balloon shaped Pokémon with large blue eyes appeared "Jigglypuff." Ryan quickly pulled out his Pokédex to scan it "**Jigglypuff**, the Balloon Pokémon. When Jigglypuff's big eyes begin to quiver, everyone becomes sleepy as it sings a lullaby."

"Wow! That Jigglypuff is so cute! I wanna catch it!" Nina pointed to the pink puffball "Hey you Jigglypuff, I want you. Come with me now!" Jigglypuff blinked oddly at Nina before shaking its head no "Jig-gly" Nina growled "no! What do you mean no!" Jigglypuff just smirked haughtily at Nina before sticking its tongue out and blowing a raspberry at her "Jiggly. Jigglypuuuufff!" Entirely unsure of what the Balloon Pokémon said, Nina scowled at the pink Pokémon, she had a feeling it was insulting her and it was really a shame that Sawyer was still in the Pokémon Center with the rest of Ryan's Pokémon, so she couldn't translate for the girl. Glancing at Chewy briefly before looking back at the taunting Jigglypuff, Nina decided to attack. "Alright Chewy, use ThunderShock!"

The Pikachu leapt off the girl's shoulder and fired a lightning bolt at the Balloon Pokémon, which gracefully dodged, bouncing out of the way of the attack "Jiggly!" Once Jigglypuff landed, it sprang into action, moving in close and bashing Chewy across the face with a pound attack, its small pink fist encased in white, Chewy was send flying from the force of the attack, but righted himself in mid air and fired off another ThunderShock, which missed again as Jigglypuff used its light weight to its advantage and bounced out of the way again, leaping into the air "Jiggly…" Jigglypuff took a deep breath and then released it in a loud echoing yell "Puff!" Multiple transparent rings that were outlined in blue appeared after the echoing shout, aimed right at Chewy "counter with ThunderShock!" Chewy nodded and fired another bolt of lightning, which hit the rings, destroying them and causing a plume of smoke to appear in the air "Now where'd Jigglypuff go?" Both Nina and Chewy scanned the ground, looking left and right for the Balloon Pokémon, Chewy grit his teeth in frustration "Pika..."

"Nina, above you!" Following Ryan's pointing finger Nina saw the smoke cloud above them shift slightly and out came Jigglypuff, it was plummeting quickly towards Chewy with its small hand cocked back and glowing white, readying itself for another Pound attack. "Jiggly-_Puff!_" Before Nina could even tell Chewy to counter with DoubleSlap, the damage was already done, Jigglypuffs fist had slammed into Chewy's torso and sent the mouse flying backwards once wore with a strangled 'Pika' Chewy hit the ground on its back with a soft thud, its eyes swirling in defeat "Piika" Chewy groaned and Jigglypuff snickered tauntingly at Chewy before disappearing in the nearby bushes "Oh no! Chewy!"

Nina ran over to the dazed mouse and picked him up in her arms "you did a great job Chewy, now just rest." Eyes having returned to normal, Chewy nodded slightly and just made himself comfortable in Nina's arms, while Ryan fell into step beside her as they headed back towards the Pokémon Center "don't say a word." Nina grunted upon catching Ryan's shifty grin from the corner of her eye. "What?" He asked with a wide grin "I wasn't going to say anything." Nina just scoffed and headed to a nearby table, deciding to order some lunch for them, while Ryan went to go get his Pokémon back from Nurse Joy.

Finding a good easy target was going to be hard in such an empty place like this. He scoffed into his burger, perhaps he should have stayed in Pewter City's Center for a little while longer. No, they would have been onto him too soon, word tends to spread around quickly when things go wrong and that wouldn't have been much fun, he needed some new suckers ASAP. The only problem is that this Pokémon Center was so dry during this time of day, it was afternoon and he had hardly seen many trainers, let alone people enter the Center for a rest, save for that one wacked out guy who kept murmuring about Team Rocket ambushing people in Mt Moon and that one old man who kept trying to sell him Magikarp. Kenji sighed as he drummed his gloved fingers on the table boredly and scanned the Center once more, there had to be somebody interesting around that he could have fun with.

"I already warned you Ryan, I don't want to hear it!"

"I haven't absolutely a clue what you're talking about"

"Don't play dumb! I know you wanna say something about my failure to catch that Jigglypuff! Its written all over your smirking face!"

Bingo. Targets sighted.

He eyed them from across the Center, blue eyes shining mischievously as he took a large bite from his sandwich. They just got settled in, eating their lunch, the boy releasing his Pokémon from their capsules, which he just retrieved from Nurse Joy, while the girl had come back to the table with a large tray of food meant to share, whilst in the middle of eating, the two trainers began to argue over something, he watched as the orange haired girl flushed angrily at some taunting comment the boy muttered and she flung a fry at him, which he responded to with a loud laugh, their Pokémon mostly ignored them, but watched the exchange with amused eyes. Once his laughter died down, the boy gave the girl a thoughtful expression and asked her something, she shrugged and then pulled out what looked to be a guidebook and then pointed to an object on the page, the boy nodded his head excitedly and then began to scarf down his food in a hurried fashion, while the girl warned him that he might choke if he kept that up, but he didn't heed her warning and continued, so it wasn't surprising when she gave him a flat stare as he vainly tried to swallow the mound of food lodge in his throat.

She just passed him a cup of water with a sigh and then shook her head before addressing the Pokémon, they all cooed in satisfaction at the meal, but he was a bit amazed when the boy's Rattata spoke, and not Pokémon speak, but actual _human speak_! Without telepathic abilities! That wasn't something you see every day, but it sure was fascinating. It would indeed make an interesting addition on his team no doubt. He watched as the boy recalled all his Pokémon, a Bulbasaur, Beedrill and Sandshrew, save for the talking Rattata which hopped onto his shoulder, while the girl's Pikachu mimicked its actions. Finishing up the last bit of his burger, he balled up the wrapper and tossed it in a nearby trash bin, he then glanced towards his partner and held out his arm for the Pokémon that had just got finished eating its meal as well "ready to go meet the newest member to our team?" Climbing up onto his own shoulder to make itself comfortable, his partner in crime nodded and grinned naughtily "Treeko. Tree."

**x-X-x**

"Okay, I think we're all set." Ryan stated as he shrugged on his bag and Nina stuffed her guidebook back into her own bag and then dumped their empty food tray in the trash and placing said tray in the compartment where it would be attended to by one of the Nurses. Glancing at Ryan, the two shared a look before heading towards the entrance of the Pokémon Center "So, how long is it gonna take us to get through this place?" Sawyer had asked upon the duo's arrival at the base of Mt Moon, they were standing nearby the entrance, gazing up at the large and seemingly endless cave. "Well, if we don't get lost. . . I don't think it would take long, we could probably hit Cerulean by the evening, but I'm just guessing here."

"Well, we won't get far by just standing here, let's go!"

"Yeah!"

Nodding at Ryan and Sawyer's enthusiasm, Nina took a step forward, to follow after the boy, whom was about to enter the mouth of the cave, but she had bumped into an unknown force and stumbled backwards, about to fall back ungracefully onto her behind. Had it not been for the fingerless gloved hand shooting out and saving her from her embarrassing trip, the mysterious person hauled her to her feet effortlessly and kindly asked if she were okay "I'm fine, thank you." Glancing up at her savior, Nina smiled slightly as green eyes met glittering blue, the young man that stood before her had messy platinum blonde hair and a cheerful smirk was etched on his lips. She noted that he was wearing a grey t-shirt, with a long sleeved white one underneath, with blue jeans and black boots to complete the ensemble.

"It's not a problem. I mean, it's not every day I have such cute girls falling head over heels for me." Nina coughed slightly and turned her head to cover up her embarrassment and the light blush that suddenly decided to paint her face. In response, the boy just chuckled and held out his hands to shake "I'm Kenji." Politely, Nina smiled and shook his hand "I'm—" Before she even had the chance to introduce herself, Ryan had come back, upon realizing Nina wasn't following and spotted her speaking with this blonde haired strange "Oi, Nina are you coming or what?" Put off by his rudeness, the smile Nina wore slipped off her face and she scowled in Ryan's direction, while he glanced at the boy she was shaking hands with "who's this?"

"Don't be rude!" She muttered and Ryan made a face briefly at her before looking back at the guy, who was holding his hand out "Kenji. It's nice to meet you." He gave them both a disarming smile "I couldn't help but notice you guys earlier in the Pokémon Center and I was wondering are you a Pokémon Trainer?" Blinking in confusion, Ryan slowly shook Kenji's hand and nodded "Uh yeah, I'm a Pokémon Trainer; I'm Ryan Summers from Pallet Town." He then motioned to Sawyer on his shoulder who nodded "This is Sawyer." Kenji gazed thoughtfully at the Rattata and his grin widened, Sawyer inwardly felt a twinge of uneasiness about this grin, but Ryan seemed oblivious "how cute, is she your starter Pokémon?" Ryan shook his head again and pulled out another Pokéball "nope, _this_ is my starter." Ryan tossed down Bulbasaur's Pokéball and the Pokémon appeared in an instant, crying out slightly as its shape materialized Kenji squatted down and gently pet Bulbasaur on the head, the Seed Pokémon smiled at the attention. "Cool, a Bulbasaur. I chose the grass starter from my home region too." At the mention of his home region, Nina glanced curiously at him "Home Region? So, that means you aren't from Kanto then?"

"Exactamundo."

"So which region did you come from?"

"That's a secret." He winked at the orange haired girl and then stuffed his hands into his pants pockets "buuut, I might tell you, if you guys play a little game with me."

"A game?"

Kenji nodded and then pulled his hands from his pockets, revealing a deck of cards "A simple card game, how's that sound?" Not giving the duo a chance to reply, he quickly began shuffling the deck, moving his hands about in mystifying motions as the cards flew from one hand to the other, his large grin still fixed on his face "the name of this game is keep your eyes on the _prize_." His grin turned devious when he stated the word prize and stared pointedly at Sawyer and this only fueled the mouse's slight uneasiness as he continued to shuffle the deck of cards until they couldn't be shuffled anymore, the two humans completely unaware of the trouble that was about to unfold. Fanning out all 52 cards, he motioned for Nina to pick one and she dutifully plucked from the middle, gazing intently at the card with Ryan "Now I want you to memorize what's on that card alright and place it back in the deck. Good, good. Now then, I'm gonna show you guys a little trick I learned." Shuffling the deck one last time, he held up four cards that he plucked at random and fanned them out so the face was down, leaving the gang to stare at the dull blue backs of the cards "Now, out of these four cards, one of these will be the one you picked."

"But how can you be so sure? How will you know that it's the right one I picked?" Nina sounded skeptical as she glanced at Kenji, who just returned her skeptic stare with another wink and a smile "It wouldn't be much of a trick if I told you, now pay close attention to the cards in my hands, because if you blink you might miss it." Eyes widening curiously, the duo and their Pokémon leaned in closer as Kenji waved his hands over the four cards and then flipped them over, but instead of revealing four numbers, they revealed four letters. It was silent and the duo shared a confused look before one of them spoke up.

"Boom? Boom what?" Ryan murmured aloud while Nina blinked and looked up at the mischievously grinning Kenji "Why, this boom of course." He snapped his fingers and all of a sudden a large green ball of _something_ came shooting from nowhere and landed right beside them, creating that loud Boom he was talking about, it also kicked up a large could of dust and this caused the two to shield their eyes from the sudden surprise attack "What the he—_ack_ was that" Nina coughed as she tumbled out the cloud of smoke "Pikachu" Chewy mumbled from his perch on her shoulder and she briefly heard Ryan and the Pokémon coughing loudly as well before they all tumbled out of the smoke cloud, an annoyed scowl etched on his face "why the nerve of that guy, that was a dirty trick!"

"Bulba. Bulbasaur." The Seed Pokémon chimed, before going into another light coughing fit "He must be a prankster or something" Nina murmured rubbing her chin thoughtfully before sighing "but I wonder what that attack was and where did it come from. . ." She glanced around the area and mentally noted that it probably came from one of the nearby trees, or maybe the guy had a Pokémon hidden about, she whirled back around to ask Ryan if he noticed anything but the words died in her throat and she gasped at the boy, pointing towards his shoulder, which was bare and lacking a distinct purple talking mouse "R-Ryan, your shoulder!" Ryan raised one of his eye brows and glanced at his shoulder "Yeah, it's bare, what about it. . ." He paused briefly and his eyes widened in realization at what was obviously missing "T-that thief! He took Sawyer!"

"But, where could he have went?"

"Well, wherever he is, he couldn't have gotten far."

"Bulba-Bulbasaur!"

"Pi-Pikachu!"

Both respective trainers of the two Pokémon glanced in their direction and noticed Chewy and Bulbasaur staring down at a pair of tracks in the dirt below them, they looked like shoe prints and they looked fresh, they were leading into the large mouth of Mt Moon. Obviously the thief had fled into the cave after attacking them and grabbing Sawyer, Ryan growled and then took a step forward towards the cave, motioning for Nina and the Pokémon to follow "c'mon guys, we've got a thief to track down."

Meanwhile inside the deep tunnels of Mt Moon, a blonde haired boy could be seen running with something distinctly green hanging off his shoulder, both were grinning widely, while held tightly in his hands was something familiar and purple and currently unconscious. The duo however was completely unaware of the curious dark eyes that followed them.

* * *

**Alright, I've obviously got my boy, but now I'm looking for the female rival. If interested, then please go back to the previous chapter and fill out the template.  
I hope I did alright with Kenji and you like him Jun.**


	8. Catch that Thief!

**Chapter 8**

"Treecko. Treeeko?"

"Haha, yeah I think she's mad. Why so upset Sawyer? I didn't do anything wrong." Sawyer just snapped her teeth at Kenji in response and growled when he decided to gently rub her head, in such a carefree way, like he didn't just have his Treecko snatch her off Ryan's shoulder during their little diversion stunt a few minutes ago. "Touchy, touchy." He murmured with a lopsided grin "you gotta learn to lighten up." Sawyer just gave him a look of pure disbelief; he wanted her to lighten up after being kidnapped? What is wrong with this guy? Instead of dignifying them with an answer, she just frowned and looked away, seeing as all she could do was move her head. Kenji unfortunately was a clever child and had tied Sawyer up, so she couldn't escape once she was awake, the rope was looped very tightly around her torso and arms, keeping them pinned to her sides.

"Treecko. Treekoo." The green gecko chimed from its spot on Kenji's shoulder and the boy nodded in response "I know, it's a shame. Guess not all Pokémon can be as awesome as you buddy." Treecko gave a prideful grin at its trainer's words, Sawyer just snorted and Treecko leered down at the mouse "Treecko. Tree." Sawyer just stuck her tongue out in response and Treecko twitched slightly from his spot, the Wood Gecko tensed on Kenji's shoulder, looking ready to lunge at the bound mouse, but Kenji's hand halted the green Pokémon's attempt "Enough Treecko." Treecko huffed and looked away from Sawyer, frowning slightly, trying to ignore the mouse's light snickers.

Kenji just sighed and shook his head "_I have a feeling that this is gonna be a long walk. . ._"

**x-X-x**

"You seem to have a _knack_ for scaring away Pokémon don't you?"

"Shut up, it wasn't even my _fault_ this time! _You_ were the one who ran into him!"

"Nu-uh! That was totally _your_ fault! Not to mention _you_ lost the battle!"

Bulbasaur and Chewy just sighed in unison as they listened to their trainers quietly argue with one another as they slowly trailed behind the latest member of the group, while the two humans hissed obscenities at one another, the two Pokémon were on the look-out for their current elusive and mysterious target. It had been roughly about 10 minutes ago since they had entered Mt Moon and already they had somehow caused a problem. While searching for that no good thief Kenji and Sawyer, Ryan and Nina had accidentally startled an apathetic, no nonsense trainer who was about to catch a docile looking Clefairy that was nearby, this irritated the trainer to no end, because he had been trying to catch this Clefairy for about nearly all week now, Ryan didn't understand the fixation he had for this Clefairy, but Nina understood it well, because she felt the exact same way when she was trying to find, sketch, and capture Chewy.

"I don't get it, why waste your time looking for one specific Pokémon for days on end? Why not just find another one of that exact species? They're all the same thing aren't they?"

She explained to him, that not all Pokémon are alike, regardless if they share the same species. She recalled to him, that the sole reason she was specifically smitten with Chewy, was because of when she first stumbled upon him on accident mind you, he had been lounging in a clearing, balancing an apple on the tip of his nose in a carefree manner, highly engrossed with the current source of entertainment. Excitedly interested, it was at that moment that she knew she had to draw it, but sadly when she had moved to grab her sketchpad she had rustled the bush she was hiding behind and apple quickly forgotten, he ran. She didn't stumble upon the Pikachu for a least a couple days later, which was when those two, Ryan and Sawyer, showed up.

Ryan just gave her a somewhat thoughtful and confused look in response to her explanation and she just sighed, telling him that he'd understand someday. The trainer whose capture they had interrupted introduced himself as Aaron. He was a nerdish looking boy with scraggly looking black hair, he wore a button up shirt and dark slacks. When the duo had stumbled upon him, he was hidden behind a large rock, that obscured Clefairy's view of him however, just as he was about to toss the Pokéball and capture this unaware fairy Pokémon, Ryan or Nina, neither were entirely sure who did it, but they blamed each other instantly, with most of the blame landing on Ryan, since it seemed like something he'd do, despite the fact that it only happened once. Either way, one of them managed to run into the crouched and hiding Aaron, causing him to stumble out from his hiding spot, startling the Clefairy and sending it fleeing for safety.

Needless to say, after three days of hiding and camping out in Mt Moon on a seemingly never ending quest to capture this rare Clefairy, Aaron was extremely irritated and he promptly persuaded, forced is more like it, Nina and Ryan to help him find and capture this Clefairy. At first Ryan had outright refused, stating that he had more important things to do, like find his stolen Pokémon, but Aaron was having none of this, he challenged Ryan to a battle, claiming that if he won, they'd help him find Clefairy, but if he lost, he'd leave them be and would go back to Clefairy hunting by his lonesome. Needless to say, Ryan was eager and Bulbasaur was called into battle, while Aaron called out his Psyduck. After collecting its information from the Pokédex, Ryan started off with Vine Whip, which Psyduck redirected with a powerful Confusion attack and then followed up with Scratch and before Ryan could have Bulbasaur retaliate with Leaf Storm, Aaron commanded Psyduck to fire Ice Beam, which would have knocked Bulbasaur squarely out, due to the close range the duck had on him, but Aaron had the attack halted and declared the match his, thus Ryan and Nina had to comply with their end of the deal and help him search and that is why the two were arguing mutedly behind his back, while their Pokémon just trailed beside them with exasperated expressions.

Up ahead of them, Aaron stopped walking and crouched down to study the dirt on the ground, with his index and middle finger, he ran the tips of the appendages along the print in the ground "Hmm, these are fresh. . ." he mumbled to himself before glancing slightly to his right, he noticed another set of prints, these a lot smaller and lighter than the first. Smirking lightly, Aaron stood up and called back towards the two bickering kids. "If you two are done having your little lovers spat, I found something over here that might be interesting." Pausing in mid yell, Ryan and Nina turned to glower at Aaron, before they irately stalked over to where the young man was standing "Well, what'd you find? Did that thief drop something or did you spot Clefairy?"

"No, nothing like that. I found fresh foot prints, they head in that direction. I assume that the shoe prints come from your thief, but I also found another trail of prints following lightly after, which I believe to be Clefairy, so if my deduction is correct then Clefairy is following after the guy you're looking for."

"Which means, that if we get to Kenji, then we might run into Clefairy along the way and kill two birds with one stone. Ryan could get Sawyer back and you could catch your Clefairy Aaron!" Nina was smiling brightly at these turns of events, not only will they catch that lying thieving trick for what he is, but if they get lucky enough, Clefairy will be around too and Aaron could catch it and then she and Ryan could be on their way.

At this moment, Nina would happily agree that things were turning out quite nicely and smoothly for them.

**x-X-x**

At this moment, Kenji would happily agree that things weren't turning out quite nicely and smoothly for them.

For one thing, they had a swarm of irritated Zubat on their tail.

No thanks to Sawyer and Treecko.

Somehow Sawyer had figured out a way to annoy Treecko, by out annoying him. What I mean is, Treecko has this attitude, where he likes to show off and use intimidation tactics to get his way and that usually works, except Sawyer threw both Kenji and Treecko a curve ball and completely ignored the Wood Gecko Pokémon and then threw snide comments at the green guy about his personality. With his ego being bruised a bit, Treecko retaliated by making a big show, just to prove her wrong, but he miscalculated the strength and aim of the Energy Ball he fired and it instead struck one of the sleeping Zubat in the cave, which would have been fine, no big deal at all, they could handle one tiny little Zubat, easy as pie.

Until Sawyer had somehow managed to wriggle free from his hold and fired a Shock Wave attack at the remaining sleeping Zubat holed up at the top of the cave, resulting in a swarm of very, irritated, sleep depraved bats. They ran and ran until Kenji was finally able to lose the bats, by ducking behind a rock for cover, giving the Zubat's the slip. He and Treecko were currently slumped against said rock, panting heavily as they both gave the mouse that caused the trouble the stink eye. Kenji lifted Sawyer up by her tail, with her front facing him and leered into her red eyes "That was not cool dude." Sawyer just snorted in response and stuck her tongue out childishly at him; Kenji just gave her a flat stare back before lowering the mouse back to the ground, Sawyer sat unperturbed on her hind legs as she glanced around their current hiding spot, nothing but rocks, confusing pathways and dimly lit corners. There had to be some way she could find Ryan and the others, maybe she could sniff them out, lifting her nose in the air to do just that.

Sawyer paused momentarily to struggle in her bonds, it was somewhat awkward not being able to move her arms freely. "_Alright, first things first, I find a way to get free and then I go find Ryan!_" Eye set in determination, Sawyer glanced around for something that could help free her, while from their resting spots, Kenji and Treecko eyed her with amusement and curiosity respectively. They watched as she hobbled around, gazing thoughtfully at rocks, the dimly lit corners and the empty space in front of her, looking for something, Kenji assumed she was trying to find a way out, but he didn't dwell on it much, she wasn't going to get very far without his help. Not to mention she was tied up pretty tight, without the use of her arms to support her, she wasn't going to make it. Rattata's aren't like Pikachu and a select few of other Pokémon that could shift between walking on four legs to just two. Sure, Rattata could stand and sit on their hind legs but they couldn't just walk on them, they always relied on their front paws as well.

"Treecko Tree?" Treecko glanced at his trainer questioningly as they watched Sawyer shuffle around aimlessly. Kenji just relaxed and closed his eyes, folding his arms behind his head, using them as a pillow to cushion his cranium against the rock. "There's nothing to worry about Treecko, she won't get very far, so I'm not gonna fret over something as tiny as her wandering around, let's just take a little break and then we'll get out of here. We need to let those Zubat run out of steam too." Sawyer's ears drooped low hopelessly as she sat back on her hind legs, at the moment, she couldn't figure out how in the world, she was going to break free and then run back to Ryan, of course gnawing through the ropes would be the smart thing, but this boy knew how to tie a knot and she didn't have enough leverage to bend her head down to use the infamous molars her species was known for. Feelings of despair flowed through her as she gazed blankly at the empty path in front of her, they'd probably be heading that way next "_how the heck and I going to get out of this one?_"

"Fairy. Celfairyy!"

Startled by the sudden noise, Sawyer jumped lightly in her bonds and the Clefairy that had literally materialized out of thin air giggled, placing its hands against its mouth to stifle the laughter. Sawyer blinked at the puffy pink Pokémon that stood before her and in response Clefairy blinked back "Fairy." It then grinned and pat her on the head "Clefairy!" Confused by this action, Sawyer just stared at the fairy Pokémon, before her eyes widened in realization, stumbling closer to the Clefairy, whom just watched curiously in response, Sawyer quickly glanced back at Kenji and Treecko and noticed both of them were relaxing, Kenji's eyes were shut tight and Treecko was curled up comfortably in his lap, she then grinned deviously and leaned towards the Clefairy's ear "Hey, can you do me a favor" she whispered and Clefairy blinked "can you help me out of these ropes? I'd like it very much."

"Clefairy? Clefairy, fairy?"

"Because, this guy kidnapped me from my trainer and I've gotta get back to him."

"Fairy!" Clefairy gasped, its eyes widening in shock and Sawyer nodded "yeah, so I'd really appreciate it if you could help untie me." Eyes setting in determination, Clefairy gave a slight nod and its hand glowed white, readying a pound attack to slice through the length of rope, but before it could have the chance to attack, a green ball of energy came zooming by and slammed harshly into the Clefairy, sending it flying back and following soon after was Treecko, it stood in between Sawyer and Clefairy, whom aside from being slightly shaken, looked just fine as it sat up after being caught off guard like that. Glaring at Treecko's back, Sawyer bared her teeth and tensed herself, ready to lunged and maul the wood gecko Pokémon, despite the obvious use of her arms to steady her, but before she could even jump Kenji had lifted her up by her tail and wagged his finger in her face "tsk, tsk Sawyer, you didn't actually think I wasn't paying attention to what you were doing did you?"

Sawyer just growled are turned her glare on him, but the blond haired boy just grinned and glanced down at Treecko, who was staring passively at Clefairy "C'mon Treecko, let's get going." Kenji then walked right past Clefairy, with Treecko following closely behind and Sawyer had been set up right and stuffed into the crook of his arm. Clefairy watched them walk away for only a fleeting moment before it sprung into action, it had to save Rattata from that bad guy! Without even acknowledging Clefairy's presence, Kenji spoke to Treecko "Slam." With a slight inclination of its head, Treecko whipped its tail around and with a powerful swing, it smacked Clefairy right in the torso and sent it flying face first into the rock he and Kenji had previously occupied, the force from the attack had knocked it out cold. Sawyer gasped and wriggled wildly in Kenji's grip "what'd you do that for!" Kenji just shrugged "Clefairy will be fine, that was one of Treecko's lighter taps, but that Clefairy must be weak if it fainted just due to one hit." He murmured, more to himself than her, grinning at Treecko, who then clambered up onto his shoulder "ah well, not our problem. Now, I hope this path leads to the exit and not a swarm of Zubat."

"Treecko. Tree."

**x-X-x**

"Are you sure we're going in the right direction, because it feels like we've been walking forever and haven't gotten anywhere."

". . ."

"Hey, are you even listening to me?"

". . ."

"Hey!"

"I'm sorry... did you say something?"

"Errk! Why you—!"

"Hey! I see something up ahead guys!"

Ryan soon stopped glaring at Aaron and glanced to where Nina was pointing, there was an unidentifiable lumpy mass ahead of them, located near a large rock. Ryan narrowed his eyes and shrugged "I dunno Nina, for all we know, it could be a Geodude or some rocks or something. It doesn't look like any Pokémon I've ever seen before… hey Bulbasaur, go check it out."

"Bulba?"

The Seed Pokémon gave his trainer a skeptic glance at his suggestion and Ryan elaborated "well, I was just thinking, if it did happen to be a wild Geodude, at least you'd have the advantage over it." Bulbasaur just gave Ryan a flat stare and he grinned sheepishly. Aaron rolled his eyes and took the initiative, taking a tentative step forward until he was close enough to identify the lumpy mass "It's alright." He called over to the two trainers and they moved closer, standing slightly behind him, peering down at the mass "It's just a Clefairy and by the looks of it, it's the same one I've been looking for…" Aaron stood up and then started to move away from the fainted Pokémon "hey wait a minute! Aren't you going to capture it? I mean here it is. The Pokémon you've been looking for!"

"It wouldn't be much sport to catch a Pokémon that didn't even put up a fight against me, that's like kicking a man when he's down."

"I don't get you at all." Ryan murmured scratching at the area covered by his headband. He then glanced over to Nina, who was bent down on one knee, next to the Clefairy, rummaging through her bag until she found the potion she'd been searching for "Nina, what are you doing?" She glanced slightly at Ryan, before spraying the antiseptic on Clefairys visible wounds, the Fairy Pokémon grunted before it stirred awake from its unconsciousness "Fairy. . ." it mumbled weakly, staring into Nina's eyes. "I couldn't just leave it here. Here you go Clefairy, have some Oran Berry, it will replenish your health." She answered, while digging into one of the pouches on her Pikachu bag's cheeks, Ryan watched in interest as she pulled out an Oran berry from the large red circle, apparently those pouches also served as compartments. Clefairy gratefully took a bite from the berry and chewed it before swallowing, Nina then gave whatever was left of the Berry, to Chewy who accepted it with a smile before gulping it down.

"That's better, are you alright Clefairy?"

Clefairy gave a slight nod and slowly got out of Nina's arms and the girl stood, brushing the dirt off her pants "I wonder what did this to it though." As if reminded by her words, Clefairys eyes widened and it tugged on Nina's pants legs "Clefairy! Clefairy Fairy!" Nina blinked and tilted her head in confusion "what's wrong Clefairy?" Clefairy moved over to where Aaron was standing and then began making wild motions "Clefairy, Clefairy, Clefairy! Fairy, Fairy!"

"You're saying something attacked you and they ran off with a rock?"

"Fairy, Clefairy, _Fairy_!"

"I don't understand. What do you think Clefairy's trying to tell us?" Ryan glanced at Nina, but she just gave him a shrug. "Hmm, Bulbasaur, can you try and figure out what Clefairy is saying?" The Seed Pokémon nodded and then moved to where Clefairy stood and then engaged in conversation "Bulbasaur? Bulba, Bulba."

"Clefairy..." it started, taking a deep breath and then exhaling. "Clefairy, Clefairy, Fairy. Fairy, Fairy, Fairy! _Cle-fairy_!" Bulbasaur blinked once and then jolted with a start "Bulba?" He gasped questioningly and Clefairy nodded furiously and rubbed solemnly at its bruised torso "Fai-ry. Clefairy." Clefairy pointed down the path behind him "Clefairy, Clefairy." Bulbasaur grunted and then nodded thankfully at Clefairy "Bulbasaur, Bulba!" He then headed over towards Ryan.

"So, what's the situation?"

"Bulbasaur! Bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur paused thoughtfully for a moment before responding. Using his vines to illustrate, to the best of his knowledge, Bulbasaur created a shape in similar likeness of Sawyer, or something resembling a mouse at least "a mouse… Sawyer! Sawyer did this?" Bulbasaur shook his head wildly "Bulba. Bulbasaur! Bulba, Bulba, Basaur!" Nina hummed thoughtfully. "Ohh, I think I get it! Kenji came by here right and Sawyer was with him?" She guessed, smacking a fist into her palm and grinning when Bulbasaur nodded "Bulba."

"Alright, so that means Kenji went down that path there. If we hurry, we might be able to stop him before he exits Mt Moon!"

"I hope so. . ."

"Well, then we can't dawdle. I gotta get Sawyer back. Let's get moving!"

"Clefairy! Clefairy, Clefairy!"

Just as the group was about to take off, Clefairy ran ahead of them, motioning for them to follow "I think its wants us to follow it." Ryan murmured "Oh, whatever gave you that idea genius?" Aaron responded dully and Ryan gritted his teeth at him. Nina ignored them both and followed along after Clefairy shaking her head, while Chewy and Bulbasaur sighed in unison, hopefully they'd find Sawyer soon, but with Clefairy leading the way it might not take long.

**x-X-x**

"What did you even kidnap me for in the first place?"

"Well, at first I figured that since you talked, you'd be a nice addition to the team. I'm starting to think otherwise." He responded flatly as they continued to walk the path, up ahead he could see a thin strip of light that was gradually growing and feel the cool relaxing breeze from Mother Nature, the exit of the cave was only a few feet away now. From his shoulder Treecko nodded heatedly in agreement "you've caused a bit of trouble for us Sawyer and this stealing Pokémon isn't really my thing. I think I'm gonna to stick with my day job." He murmured the last part to himself, but Sawyer heard him anyway and replied hopefully "so does that mean you're going to let me go?"

"No. Why would I? We've gotten this far, and I haven't gotten caught yet." Kenji said no more and all but ran towards the exit, taking a nice deep breath of the outside air "Ah, fresh air, it's so much better than that stuff cave and look, the sun's setting. I think we got through the cave in record time." Glancing around, Kenji took in his surroundings, nothing but rocky terrain and a dirt path, that would eventually shift into the familiar grassy plains and lightly forested area of the outskirts of Cerulean City, Kenji grinned widely and looked at his green companion "It shouldn't take us no more than about 10 minutes to get to the city and once there, we'll blend in with the crowd and be good to go. Right Treecko?"

"Treecko. Tree." The wood gecko nodded its head in agreement, but paused upon hearing a voice ring out.

"Not on my watch you don't! Bulbasaur use Leaf Storm!"

"Bulbasaur!"

Kenji frowned slightly and dodged accordingly as the swirling cyclone of leaves blew past him, blowing his platinum locks about his face. "Oh great, the Calvary has arrived. How'd you guys even manage to catch up so quick?" He scratched at his head thoughtfully before his eyes trailed over to the familiar pink creature huddled behind Nina's leg and a light smirk twitched on his lips "oh, no wonder you guys found me so fast, you had a little outside help. I don't think you hit it hard enough Treecko." Kenji muttered as he crossed his arms and stared pointedly at the fairy Pokémon, who gulped audibly before returning the stare with a wavering glare of its own "C-Clefairy!"

"Tree." The wood gecko sneered, leering back at Clefairy, whose glare faltered as it hugged Nina's leg slightly tighter "Treecko? I've never seen one of those before." Ryan pulled out his Pokédex and pointed it at the green Pokémon.

"**Treecko**_, the Wood Gecko Pokémon. Treecko are able to climb smooth vertical walls and use their thick tail to attack opponents. Since Treecko build their nests in large trees it is said that those trees will live a very long life._"

"A Treecko? That means, you must be from Hoenn!"

"Ooh, give the lady a prize, she got it right."

"Give me back Sawyer you no good thief!"

"But, we were in the middle of such a good bonding session before you showed up."

"We _were_ not! You were about to—mrmph!" Kenji clamped his free hand down on Sawyer's mouth and silenced her talking, though she wriggled wildly in his arms, but the boy was unaffected by her struggling "chatty little thing, isn't she" he shot Ryan a dry grin and the brunette growled in response "Bulbasaur, get back Sawyer with Vine Whip." Bulbasaur nodded and ran forward, the vines from the bulb on his back shooting out and aiming for Kenji, but before they could reach its intended target Treecko jumped off his shoulder and easily blocked the attack, growling at Bulbasaur "Treecko."

"Thanks buddy, now use Slam!"

Treecko shot forward and used its momentum to pivot on the balls of its toes and smacked Bulbasaur clean across the face with its tail, sending the starter skidding backwards, wincing from the attack "Bulbasaur, you alright?" Shaking his head and grunting, Bulbasaur nodded before leaping back into battle, charging at Treecko, its vines out and ready "Bulba!" Bulbasaur fired its vines once more at Treecko and this time they managed to connect, smacking the grass type harshly in response to the previous slam attack. Treecko just sneered and rubbed its slightly stinging torso "Treecko, Tree."

From their spots on the sidelines, Aaron watched the battle with calculating eyes, while Nina was keeping her eyes on the bound Sawyer being held limply in Kenji's arms. "They are evenly matched." Blinking Nina turned her gaze away from Kenji and looked at Aaron questioningly "what?" Aaron sighed and resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her question "Ryan and that trainer, they are evenly matched" he repeated slowly while watching as Treecko rushed towards Bulbasaur to attack him with Slam again, but Ryan had Bulbasaur stop the attack with Vine Whip and then launch Treecko in the air.

"Yeah, Kenji's Treecko is well trained, but it also doesn't help much since both Pokémon are grass types and each other's attacks are doing such little damage, not to mention Treecko's faster than Bulbasaur." She noted, watching as Treecko easily dodged another Vine Whip and struck out with an Absorb attack, the attack halted Bulbasaur momentarily but the seed Pokémon easily shook off its effects. "At the rate these two are going, the battle could go either way," Nina frowned slightly at the thought of Kenji winning and getting away with stealing Sawyer "but I hope Ryan wins this in the end."

"Pii-kachuu" Chewy nodded solemnly in agreement.

"Not bad, not bad." Kenji hummed approvingly before smirking "but, you do know grass attacks are ineffective against other grass types." Ryan scowled irately at Kenji "of course I know that, what trainer doesn't know that! Regardless, me and Bulbasaur will beat you now! Bulbasaur, Leaf Storm!" Bulbasaur's bulb began to glow green and the air around it started to shift, from the opening of the bulb on its back, glowing green leaves appeared and whirled around Bulbasaur once before they formed a cyclone and shot towards Treecko.

"Block, then counter with Energy Ball!"

Treecko grunted and then crossed its arms, allowing the cyclone of leaves to shoot past him, injuring the wood gecko slightly. "Treeee" Treecko opened its mouth, causing a large ball of green energy to appear "KO!" snapping its mouth shut, the ball of energy shot towards Bulbasaur, squarely hitting the Seed Pokémon in the face and exploding upon impact "Bulba!" Bulbasaur growled whilst shaking off the attack "Okay, time to bring it up a notch! Bulbasaur, Seed Bomb!"

"Saur!" Bulbasaur opened its mouth and twin white orbs appeared, then the orbs fired, splitting into several explosive glowing seeds "Dodge it!" Kenji exclaimed and Treecko waiting until the last possible second, when the attack was about to hit, to leap right over it, the orbs slammed into one of the few stray boulders around the area, it exploded into pieces upon being hit, kicking up a mild dust storm which covered the area.

"I think that was a bit too up a notch Bulbasaur." Ryan chuckled lightly from his side on the field before coughing as the dust cloud slowly dissipated "Bulba-saaaur" Bulbasaur grinned sheepishly in response and then glanced at Treecko, who stood with its arms crossed, leering at Bulbasaur "tree" Bulbasaur growled back in response.

"Okay Bulbasaur, use Leaf—"

"Golem!"

Ryan was cut off by a gruff shout and a loud thump. Glancing to his right, he saw a Golem appear, it was glaring at him and Bulbasaur "Lem!" It shook its short arm angrily at the brown haired boy, before curling into a ball and started to roll in place. Ryan gasped and wondered where the Golem even came from, his eyes then trailed over to the large boulder, that was now a pile of rocks, Bulbasaur had destroyed with Seed Bomb hovering around the remains were a group of Geodude and they were glaring angrily at Ryan and Bulbasaur as well "oh no, you have gotta be kidding me" Ryan blanched when he saw the Golem shot off like a rocket and it was aiming for Bulbasaur! "GOLEM!"

"Bulbasaur, dodge it!"

Bulbasaur unfortunately was too slow to avoid the attack and was swiftly knocked aside by Golem's Rollout attack, he landed in a heap at Ryan's feet "Bulbasaur!" He quickly knelt down and gathered the Seed Pokémon in his arms "you okay?" Bulbasaur groaned weakly and gave a slow nod "Basaur."

"Ryan! Look out!"

Nina gasped loudly and pointed at Golem, who had rounded back for one more attack. This time he was aiming for Ryan and Bulbasaur! Ryan's eyes widened to the size of saucers as the living wrecking ball got closer, legs frozen in shock the brunette stood there looking like a Stantler caught in headlights. Closing his eyes Ryan hugged Bulbasaur closer, hoping to take the brunt of the impact, and waited for the worse to happen.

. . .

A few tense seconds later, Ryan realized the hit never came.

Slowly her cracked open his eyes and they widened in disbelief. Merely inches away from bowling them both over, Golem stood frozen in place, eyes swirling and covered from head to toe in a block of ice, glancing behind him, he saw Aaron standing there with an apathetic look on his face and his Psyduck was out, standing by his side, clutching its head out of pure habit "Psy."

"A-Aaron, you saved him!" Nina gasped out, eyes widened and glasses hanging off the bridge of her nose. Aaron just scoffed and rolled his eyes "why wouldn't I save him? He stupidly rushed in to save Bulbasaur and almost became severely injured. You need to learn to act quick in these types of situations or someone will often get hurt" he murmured staring pointedly at Ryan, the brunette swallowed thickly before standing on his shaky legs, in his arms Bulbasaur breathed a sigh of relief.

Nina was by their side in an instant, running her eyes over Ryan's frame to check for injuries "are you alright?" Slowly, he nodded and then glanced at Aaron who calmly walked over with his Psyduck "thanks for saving us" Bulbasaur chimed in with a grateful 'Bulba' and a nod "It's not a problem" He waved off with a plain stare "but now that you and Bulbasaur are out of immediate danger, I just thought I'd let you know your thieving friend disappeared when Golem attacked."

"Oh no, Sawyer!"

Peering around the still frozen Golem, Ryan sighed in relief, to see Sawyer slightly up ahead, gazing thankfully at Clefairy, whom in the confusion had ran over towards the mouse Pokémon to aid her. Feeling unrestricted and loose, Sawyer stretched her stiff muscles and once again thanked Clefairy for releasing her "thanks a lot Clefairy" Clefairy grinned in response "Clefairy. Clefairy."

"Pikachu! PikachuPi!"

A yellow and black blur shot past Clefairy and tackled Sawyer to the ground "Chewy!" Sawyer grinned as the yellow mouse spun her around in a hug "Piikachu!" The two mouse Pokémon fell onto their backsides with happy smiles and grinned at one another, before Ryan and Nina came running over. Aaron walked. "Sawyer, you're alright!" Sawyer nodded "Mhm. I'm fine, not a thing out of place or bruised... except for maybe my back, that kid sure knows how to tie a knot."

"I'm glad you're okay Sawyer."

"Bulba-Bulbasaur!"

"Yeah, I never want to get kidnapped again, it wasn't fun at all."

Ryan smiled and allowed Sawyer to climb onto his shoulder; Bulbasaur still held securely in his arms, he glanced back at Aaron, who watched them with cool eyes "thanks again for earlier, you saved our butts back there."

"Bulbasaaur."

Aaron just shrugged nonchalantly "it's not a big deal. Good luck on your journey, c'mon Psyduck." The yellow duck nodded and waddled obediently after its trainer, Ryan frowned slightly as they watched him walk off "that guy... thinks he's so cool." Sawyer titled her head in confusion and glanced at Bulbasaur, who just sighed listlessly and shook his head "Bul-ba-saaur." Nina just smiled at the exchanged and then glanced around the area thoughtfully.

"Hey, where'd Clefairy go?"

"Pika?"

"I dunno, it was just here a second ago."

"Maybe it went back to Mt Moon? Or it could be following after Aaron."

Nina shrugged "well, wherever it went, I hope it's doing okay."

"I'm sure Clefairy will be fine" Ryan murmured while beginning to walk forward "now that we're all together again, let's head to Cerulean City. I've had about enough excitement for one day and tomorrow I'm challenging the Cerulean Gym and we're gonna win our next badge, right Bulbasaur?" From its spot in his arms, Bulbasaur nodded and raised one of its paws "Bulbasaur!"

"That's the spirit buddy!"

Smiling widely, Nina just shook her head and followed behind the enthusiastic Ryan as they made their way down the path of Mt Moon and onwards into Cerulean City.

* * *

**Still looking for that female. I won't pick one until I reach Chapter 10.  
**


	9. Concentrate Chewy!

**Chapter 9**

I'm sorry!  
The Cerulean Gym is for closed today.  
Please come back tomorrow.  
_~ Misty_

Standing in front of the dome-shaped brightly colored Gym with a gigantic painting of a Dewgong on top of it, Ryan groaned as he reread the note posted on the doors "Aww maan. I was really anxious to battle today." Shaking his head, he whirled around and glanced down at Bulbasaur and Sawyer who looked back up at him with quizzical expressions "I guess that means we've got a free day."

"So, what are we gonna do?"

"Training. When we were coming down the road to get here yesterday, there was this nice large field I saw, I was thinking we could train around there and maybe if we train hard enough, one of you guys might evolve today. I'm sure tons of trainers and Pokémon will be there, plus, I feel like I've been neglecting Beedrill and Sandshrew." He admitted with a sheepish grin and motioned for the duo to follow him "but, lets head to the Pokémon Center first and I'll get Ekans and Spearow from the lab then I'll have a full team." It didn't take long for Ryan to round back to the Pokémon Center and grab his two boxed Pokémon and get the entire team a check up before he exited the center once more and made his way towards Route 4 to train.

"Hey, Ryan, did Nina ever say what she was doing today?"

Pausing mid step, Ryan glanced at the Rattata by his feet and then scratched his head thoughtfully "no, she didn't really say where she was going, she just took off with Chewy and said she'd be back later." Shrugging, he continued to walk, placing his arms behind his head "ah well, she probably just went shopping or something. That's what all girls do anyway, right?" He received no answer from either Pokémon, just simultaneous looks of uncertainty.

**x-X-x**

"Wow, look at this Chewy, isn't it pretty!"

"Pi-kachu!"

The two were currently resting on a grassy knoll by the riverside that was located near Cerulean City. She decided that today would a day for her and Chewy to hang out, since Ryan was going to be at the Gym earning his second badge. With her sketch book in hand and pencil lodged on her ear, she glanced at Chewy with a thoughtful expression on her face "You think Ryan will be okay and get his second badge?"

"Pika."

"Yeah, your right, he'll be fine plus I heard the gym leader there uses water type Pokémon. So Bulbasaur would be the obvious choice there."

"Pika—"

Chewy paused in nodding his head responsively and slowly sniffed the air, the yellow mouse's ears twitched slightly along with his nose, which he lifted higher in the air whole he stood on the tips of his toes "Pi?"

"What's wrong Chewy?"

Nina glanced at questioningly at him.

"Pika-chuu."

Chewy sniffed the air a few more times, before darting off "h-hey!" Confused by the abruptness of it all, Nina was practically stumbling over her two feet and almost fell down the hill and dropped her book as she swiftly stood up and ran after her weird acting Pikachu "Chewy! Where are you going?" The Pikachu didn't answer and just kept on running, the scenery passed the two by as the human chased after her yellow partner, he rounded the corner of the tree-lined path they were running down and Nina thrust her hand forward in a somewhat halting motion "wait a minute Chewy! Slow dow—omph!"

While she ran after Chewy, she didn't notice the body of a person step out of the trees just as she was about to turn the corner in pursuit and accidentally bowled someone right over. Both of them fell to the ground, but Nina fell with a slight pained cry, the force of the crash caused her glasses to fly from her face and her sketch book to fly from her hands. "_Owie, this is the second time I've ran into someone. At least the last time Kenji caught me before I fell._" She groaned while rubbing at her sore backside.

"Raichu!"

"I'm fine Mona, thanks for asking. I'm sorry, are you alright? You dropped these."

Halting in rubbing her aching tailbone, Nina blinked at the tanned hand that held her glasses, she took them back sliding them back onto the bridge of her nose, and then she glanced up. Green eyes met warm muddy brown; his eyes were hidden slightly behind his feathery cropped sooty black hair, uneven edges swept across his cheekbones, there were also shorter strands of hair that stuck up in the back in an almost gravity defying manner, as though he just stepped out of bed. Nina's eyes widened slightly as she took in this boy's appearance, he was an older looking male who wore a simple orange brownish short sleeved shirt with plain black thunderbolt emblazoned arm bands clinging to his biceps, dark slacks and neutral brown shoes.

"Are you okay?"

"H-huh?"

The boy's lips twitched upward slightly as he held out his hand for her to take, which Nina did wordlessly, he pulled her to her feet with little effort.

"I asked, if you were okay. I hope I didn't bump into you too hard."

"Oh! No, uh you didn't its cool." Nina waved her hands about in a dismissive manner and laughed sheepishly "this wouldn't be the first time I've been knocked down. I'm totally used to it."

"I see." His eye trailed down to the ground where her sketchbook lay haphazardly thrown open due to their unexpected crashing, raising a brow the young man picked up the book and gazed at the graphic representation of two Pokémon at play displayed on the crisp sheets "did you draw this?" He asked flipping briefly through the pages before handing it back to Nina, she nodded and closed the blue book, tucking it into the crook of her arm "they look great, so realistic, you have an amazing talent."

"Ah, thank you." She flushed at the compliment and the dark haired boy held out his hand "I'm Reno." Nina politely shook it "I'm Nina, nice to meet you."

"Rai! Raichu!"

Instantly appearing by his side, was a Raichu it was glancing up curiously at Nina and Reno motioned to the electric mouse "right and this is Mona, my Raichu." Mona nodded in confirmation at the introduction and Nina smiled slightly before her eyes widened thoughtfully "oh no, I need to find Chewy!" pivoting on her toes Nina took off to where she saw Chewy round the corner and was met with the most beautiful sight.

"Viile-Pluuume!"

In the middle of this large clearing, stood a Vileplume and coming out from the top of the hole on its head was a large burst of sparkling pink petals, which were spiraling quickly into the sky "Viiiiile!" Vileplume suddenly leapt into the air once it was finished firing its Petal Dance attack, the large petals on its head flashing gold as it in took the energy of the sun, after a few moments of charging, Vileplume spun once and then fired the stored energy from the top of its head "Pluuuume!" The powerful SolarBeam soared cleanly through the Petal Dance attack, resulting in the pink petals to spiral beautifully around the beam of golden light, which soon dissipated moments later into the sky, leaving the pink petals to flutter daintily like a curtain around Vileplume, whom had landed only seconds ago.

"_That was…_"

"Amazing David! What gorgeous display!" Nina jolted slightly from the unexpected yell that came from behind her, glancing back she saw Reno and Mona standing there, giving the Vileplume large grins.

"Raichu!"

"Plu-Plume!"

The Vileplume ran over to Reno and the black haired boy knelt down and rubbed the flower Pokémon gently on the head "that was a nice show you gave us David, I think your audience was really taken by it." Reno glanced at Nina and winked "Good job." David in turn looked at Nina, who he obviously just noticed and smiled widely "Vile!" It clasped its stubby hands together and bowed slightly "Plume-Plu." Speechless, Nina just stared and watched as the Vileplume suddenly turned its attention to the area on it left and ran over there, an annoyed look on its face "Vileplume! Vile-Vile!"

"Piikachu. Pika!"

Snapping out of her momentary silence, Nina looked over to where Vileplume had ran and noticed a picnic table situated there and it was littered with an assortment of foods and Pokémon chow, an assortment of foods, that was currently being scarfed down by a familiar Pikachu, who was glaring while getting yelled at by David and seated at the other end of the table was a Smeargle, who just watched the scene with indifference while it languidly munched on its own Pokémon food. Nina gasped and ran over to the table "Chewy! What are you doing!" the Pikachu halted its glaring fest and dropped the rice ball it was about to eat, gazing sheepishly at its trainer "P-Pika!"

"Chewy you know better than to—"

"It's quite alright Nina. There's more than enough to go around" Nina was once again startled by Reno's sudden appearance from behind and she looked at the brown eyed boy nervously "are you sure? I mean, I don't want to impose a-and what Chewy did was very rude and—" she was cut off once again by his light chuckle and a shake of his head "its fine, honest. Besides, it's always nice to have more company for lunch and David is just being greedy. So, would you care to join us? Because I believe your Chewy has made it pretty clear that he's not leaving without a bite to eat." Eyes alight with mirth he motioned to her Pikachu, who was back to stuffing his face with a goofy grin "Chuu." He cooed happily placing his paws in his red dotted cheeks.

Nina flushed heavily in response and said nothing, but sat down on the bench and began to fix herself a plate, while Reno's smile grew and he took his seat across from her, Mona clambered onto the bench and took a seat beside Reno, while David sat beside Nina, glaring slightly at Chewy who had moved from the rice balls and towards the extra bowl of Pokémon food Reno had set down for it "Pika-Pikachu!"

**x-X-x**

"Thank you again for the lunch. You didn't have to do that."

"Eh, it's no big deal." He shrugged nonchalantly before rising from his seat and grabbing their dishes "So, what were you doing out here anyway?" He made his way over towards the river with two cloths and a bottle of red liquid in hand, Nina followed after him while the Pokémon moved from the table to play "we'll, my friend was going to challenge Misty today and I thought that me and Chewy could have some time alone and just hang out, but then Chewy smelled your lunch and well. . . here we are." She laughed nervously and Reno just handed her the extra cloth in his hand "could you dry the dishes for me?"

Nina nodded curtly as he handed her one of the dripping dishes he was currently washing by the stream "what about you? Are you a Pokémon Trainer or a Pokémon Coordinator? Your Vileplume looks really strong and that combination from before was beautiful!" Reno passed Nina another dish and smirked "thank you for the compliment, I pride myself on my Pokémon's moves to be not only strong, but eye catching as well. My battling style is heavily influenced from Coordinator's appeals, but I am a Pokémon Trainer, I just won the Cascade Badge yesterday." Digging into the pocket of his pants he pulled out the light blue raindrop shaped badge.

"Wow, your Pokémon must be really strong for you to have obtained your second badge."

"Yes, but it's also pretty easy when your Pokémon have a type advantage too. I think Mona might have fried Misty's Gyarados yesterday, she didn't seem too happy about that." He rubbed the back of his neck and laughed sheepishly, upon the mention of his Raichu, Nina paused in her drying to glance at the large mouse Pokémon, currently she was demonstrating something to Chewy, the smaller of the two eyed its evolution with interest as its cheeks began to spark violently with electricity, paws clenched and face set in concentration "Raiiiiii." The air around Mona suddenly pulsated to life with energy, electricity was literally beginning to manifest itself in the air around her and the ground beneath her feet was starting to crack, even her tail was sparking with excess static. "Chuuu!" After building up all that energy, Mona then released it in one fell swoop, powerful sparks of electricity danced above the two electric type Pokémon for several seconds before it dispersed, Mona stood not looking the least bit winded from the display. "Raichu. Rai, Rai."

"Piikaa" Chewy murmured in awe before clenching his own paws in determination "Pikachu. Pika! Piiii." Following Mona's example, Chewy began to store electricity in his own cheeks, though unlike Mona the air around him did not pulsate nor manifest with sparks of electricity and the ground at his feet did not crack, but he stored all the energy he could, holding onto his red cheeks with concentration "kaaaachuuuu!" and just like Mona before him, Chewy unleashed all that pent up electric energy into the sky, sparks of electricity danced above them, just like with Mona, though his display was decent, compared to the larger mouse. Nina gasped as she watched Chewy mimic Mona's electric technique, all that energy he stored up, he was just releasing into the sky, sparks crackling like fireworks, from beside her Reno spoke up, mirth obvious in his voice "Not bad for a first time attempt, but if you don't tell him to stop he'll get dizzy and faint."

"Huh?" Nina tore her eyes away from Chewy and looked at Reno, who elaborated while cleaning off his final dish, which he handed her to dry "Your Pikachu is going to faint if he keeps carelessly releasing all his energy like that, Mona has enough energy to spare, not to mention she used a small amount during the display."

"_Small? That was small?_" He chuckled at the flabbergasted look on her face "Mona's spent a lot of time perfecting her technique and increasing her electrical abilities, if the circumstances ever called for it, she could take down at least _two_ Dragonite with Thunderbolt alone." He shook his head and continued to chuckle, finding her Magikarp imitation amusing "But that's beside the point, he needs to stop or he'll use up all his energy and might collapse."

"R-right." Nina stopped gaping and turned her attention back towards her Pikachu, who was still going at it "Oh no, Chewy look out!" Still in the midst of putting on its light show, Chewy failed to notice the incoming Pidgeotto that was flying by and the bird Pokémon ended up getting accidentally zapped. It quickly came to its senses and dived at the unsuspecting Chewy, who was puffing his chest out proudly at his successful attempt to imitate Mona "Pika, Pikachu." He was swiftly caught unawares by the large avian that barreled into his side with a devastating Peck attack "Geotto!"

"Pika!" Chewy squeaked as he was suddenly sent flying face first into the dirt "Chewy! Are you okay?"

"Piikachu." Gritting his teeth, the electric mouse slowly rose from the ground, glaring at the bird who was continuing on its way "Piikaa" Chewy's cheeks began to spark violently as he watching Pidgeotto get away, not taking too kindly to the fact that it just basically hit him and ran "chuuuu!" Chewy was soon surrounded by electricity, which he then fired at the unaware and fleeing Pidgeotto, the attack hit its mark and Pidgeotto had gotten shocked. It cried out loudly in pain before faltering slightly in the air and then began plummeting rapidly towards the ground "Pika-Pi." Chewy grinned smugly at its accomplishment, except that smug grin turned into wide eyed disbelief as he watched the previously nose-diving bird, at the last second, shake off the shock and pull up back into the sky, just as it was about to hit the ground.

"Geootto!"

"P-Pika!"

Pidgeotto had quickly flew at Chewy, barreling into his torso again with a powerful swipe from its Wing Attack. Chewy was sent flying backwards, skidding against the ground until he eventually stopped, kicking up a cloud of dust in its wake. Positive that Chewy was down for the count, the Pidgeotto snorted slightly before flying away, down below on the field, Nina rushed over to her defeated Pokémon "Oh no, Chewy!" He was definitely down for the count "Piikachuu." the yellow mouse groaned weakly as Nina scooped him up in her arms "you alright?" Chewy nodded slightly "Pika."

"Sorry about your loss little guy, but maybe I can help you with that." Reno came over to stand by her side and stared down at Chewy "Pika?" he blinked up at him curiously in response "Well, I know this move that Pikachu are capable of learning and I think it would suit you just fine." He turned his gaze to Nina "would it be alright with you if I taught Chewy the move?"

"U-uh nope, not at all. Is that okay with you Chewy? You wanna learn a new move?" She glanced down at the Pikachu held in her arms, he was looking between the two of them thoughtfully for a few moments before nodding his head "Pika."

"That's great! Alright then, Chewy come with me and Leonardo, I need your assistance." Nina released her gentle hold on Chewy and allowed him to follow Reno a slight distance away, while Leonardo, his Smeargle, who had been lying lazily on its side, twirling its tail around in a bored manner, watching them all with an unreadable expression meters away from them, suddenly perked up and rose to its feet "Smeargle." Nina watched as the Painter Pokémon made its way over to Reno and Chewy, its strides were confident, steady and precise, like it had all the time in the world "_it moves so casually, his Smeargle must be just as strong, if not stronger than the other two._" At the thought, Nina turned her gaze to Mona, who was standing beside Reno, listening to him speak to Chewy about this special move he was going to teach. Curious to where his Vileplume was, she scanned the clearing and found the flower Pokémon by the stream, practicing its Petal Dance routine from before.

"_I wonder how Ryan's training is coming along._"

**x-X-x**

"Spearow, use Drill Peck!"

**x**

"Ekans, dodge and use Bite!"

**x**

"Beedrill, Twineedle!"

**x**

"Counter with Leaf Storm!"

**x**

"Sawyer, finish with Double-Edge!"

**x**

"Sandshrew, Slash!"

**x**

"You guys are doing great! Now, let's have a few more battles and then we can take a snack break!"

"Yeah/Sand/Drii/Bulba/Kaanss/Spear!"

**x-X-x **

"_Knowing him, it's probably going along just fine; I just hope he doesn't overwork his Pokémon._" Shaking her head with a sigh, she flipped aimlessly through her sketchbook wondering what to draw. Seated at the picnic table, Nina was also watching Reno coach Chewy on this new move he was about to teach him, it was called Signal Beam, a bug type attack that often confused whoever got hit by it. Leonardo had been the one to set the example this time, its body radiated a sinister looking rainbow color aura, which he fired at the unsuspecting David, who had the misfortune to become his test dummy, the poor Vileplume instantly became confused and was teetering around dazedly, until he fell face first in the stream, which Chewy and Mona shared a laugh at, the dripping David outright glared at the two mouse Pokémon and grumbled something to Leonardo shaking its arm, but didn't look the least bit fazed.

"Now Chewy, try to mimic Leonardo just like that, you're going to have to concentrate if you want this to work." Reno explained while Chewy nodded and clenched his fists much like before "Piiikaaa." Chewy's paws clenched and unclenched sporadically, his tail and ears stood erect and his eyes were shut tightly while he attempted to imitate Leonardo "Chuuu." After several long moments, Chewy stopped and opened his eyes, ears drooping dejectedly he whined "Piika." Reno simply patted his head and sent him a gentle smile "hey, don't sweat it little guy, nobody gets it right on their first try, you just have to keep practicing and practicing until you can get it right. Now try again."

"Piiiikaa."

Time ticked away rather quickly during Chewy's training session, the sky was beginning to turn orange, indicating that nightfall would hit soon and he still wasn't showing any progress, getting frustrated plenty of times, but Reno was always there to quickly calm the mouse, be it a reassuring head rub or words of encouragement and Chewy would then go back to trying his hardest to get the attack down. While those two were doing that, Nina had managed to fill a few more pages of her sketchbook, with pictures of all three of Reno's Pokémon, one was a picture of David being surrounded by its Petal Dance attack and Mona when she was playing with some of the Pokémon that lived in the area and the last was of Leonardo taking a nap while Chewy had practiced but now nightfall was upon them and the elder boy had to get going soon, he already recalled Mona and David back to their Pokéballs "Okay, Chewy let's try it one last time before calling it a day, it's getting late."

"Pika."

"Remember what I told you, deep breaths, concentrate and focus."

"Pi. Piiiiikaaa."

For several tense seconds, all eyes were on Chewy waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. Nina sighed softly and shook her head, lowering her gaze "_Well, so much for that—_"

"That's it Chewy! You're doing it!"

Nina's thoughts were cut off by Reno's exclamation, so she lifted her eyes toward Chewy and they widened in awe. Chewy was surrounded in an aura of rainbow colored energy "Now, try to fire it." Nodding, Chewy then fired the rainbow colored energy aiming for one of the nearby trees, however before the attack could hit its mark, the aura began to flicker sporadically before fizzling out completely, causing the attack to dissipate in mid-air. Chewy frowned at the predicament, but the frown instantly turned into a smile when Reno crouched down and rubbed his head "well, now all you have to do is keep working on the attack and you'll be firing Signal Beams in no time little guy. Good job Chewy."

"Pikachuu."

Nina smiled softly at the two and tucked her sketchbook under her arm before moving over to the crouching Reno, who stood extending his hand for her to shake "Well, I guess this is so long for now. Maybe we'll see each other again sometime, during our travels?" She nodded, taking his hand and shaking it "yeah, thank you for teaching Signal Beam, we'll practice every day until we get it right, right?" At her question, Chewy nodded and hopped onto her shoulder, giving a determined smile "Pika!" Reno chuckled slightly and pat Chewy on the head on more time, then catching Nina completely off guard, he pat her on the head too, causing her hat to drop over her eyes. Blinking she readjusted her hat and glasses, managing to catch him waving at her and Chewy as he and Leonardo disappeared down the path opposite of the city.

"Well, we better head back to the Pokémon Center Chewy, maybe Ryan is finished training too."

"Pika-Pikachu!"

It didn't take long for them to get back to the center and when they entered the lobby, Ryan walked up to them "Hey Nina! How'd your shopping go?" She blinked in confusion "Shopping? Why would you think I spent the entire day shopping?"

"Because isn't that what girls do when they have days to themselves? They go shopping. That's what my mom always does when my Dad comes home." He scratched his head thoughtfully and Nina rolled her eyes in response.

"Not all girls go shopping all the time you know, besides. I got everything I needed back in Pewter City."

"Oh, well then what'd you and Chewy do all day?"

"Oh, nothing important." She dismissed with a wave "how was training?" Ryan's eyes practically sparkled as he recounted his day of intense training and how at the moment his Pokémon were being checked over by Nurse Joy "by tomorrow, Misty won't know what hit her!" Nina smiled and followed the brunette back over to the front desk, where the familiar musical chime rang out, indicating that his Pokémon were fully healed, seated on the tray, was Bulbasaur and Sawyer, while the rest of his Pokémon were tucked safely into their balls, the two Pokémon greeted Nina with smiles and pleasantries "So, do you know who you're going to use tomorrow?" She asked, from her spot in her bed situated across from his in their shared room, Chewy was fast asleep beside her. "Bulbasaur is my first choice obviously." Upon hearing his name mentioned, Bulbasaur smiled slightly, the plant Pokémon was curled snugly into his side while Sawyer curled up on his stomach "and for the others, I'm not sure. I don't know how many Pokémon we're going to use, but whatever she chooses, we'll beat it." Lifting his hand, he scratched Bulbasaur lightly behind the ear "right buddy?"

"Bulbasaur."

"Gnight Nina."

"Night Ryan."

"_Maybe we'll see each other again sometime, during our travels?_"

"_Until next time Reno._"


	10. Battle for the Badge!

**Chapter 10**

"So Ryan, you ready for your next battle?"

"Yep, I'm ready to win this! The Cascade Badge will be mine!"

"Bulba, Bulbasaur!"

"Whoa, look at him. There's fire literally burning in his eyes!" Sawyer murmured in awe from her spot on the left of Nina's shoulder "Pikachu." Chewy nodded in agreement from his spot on her right "Bulbasaur looks excited too." Nina smiled as she glanced at the Seed Pokémon whom stood anxiously at his determined trainer's side, waiting for the doors of the gym to open. Several moments passed before a clicking noise was heard and the doors to the Cerulean Gym opened with a flourish, revealing a hallway with an aquarium.

"Wow, look at all the water Pokémon!" Nina gasped as she pressed her face against the glass and stared at the large Seaking and Goldeen that were swimming playfully around one another "Yeah, there sure is a lot of them." Ryan murmured from the other side of the hallway. Through the glass he saw a group of various Pokémon swim by, consisting of Shellder, Magikarp, Seel and Horsea, while on the aquarium floor, was Gyarados sleeping soundly, its large serpentine body curled up tight. "Too bad this big guy is sleeping," he murmured with a slight frown "Hey Ryan, come look at this! It's a Dewgong!" Smiling slightly, Ryan moved over to stand beside Nina and watched as the white mermaid looking Pokémon swam up to the glass and grinned at them both, while on the other side of the hall, Bulbasaur was gazing curiously at the sleeping Gyarados "Bulba…" he stood on his hind legs and used the wall of the hallway to obtain balance, so he could get a better look at the large sleeping Pokémon "Basaur" he mumbled blinking as the Gyarados opened its eyes slowly, locking gazes with the curious seed Pokémon.

"Bulba! Bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur gasped and turned his head slightly and alerting Ryan that Gyarados was awake "Huh? What's up buddy?" Bulbasaur pointed at Gyarados with his paw "Bulbasaur!" Ryan tilted his head to the side slightly before scratching it "yeah, I see its sleeping right now Bulbasaur, it's a shame we can't see it when its awake."

"Bulba?"

Upon hearing that it was sleep, Bulbasaur turned around and glanced back at the blue water serpent and sure enough, it was sleeping again, Ryan then whirled back around to watch the Starmie that flitted past. Bulbasaur was confused, the Gyarados was just up, he saw it! Gazing at the water Pokémon again, he saw the large Pokémon lift its head slightly and open one of its eyes to wink at him "B-Bulba!" Bulbasaur scowled at the dirty trick and the Gyarados just gave a devious grin "Bulbasaur…" he grumbled, but before he could do anything, Ryan had picked him up and they were heading down the hallway, towards the gym area "C'mon Bulbasaur, we've got a badge to win."

They rounded the corner and were met with an interesting sight.

"Now, pay attention Azurill, this is the best part! Caserin, Double Team then use Water Gun!"

"Luv! Luv! Luv! Luv! Luuuuv!"

In the middle of the large pool was a pink, heart shaped Pokémon swimming at a rapid pace as it darted around the water, fulfilling its trainers command, splitting into several copy forms that spread out to form a circle and then as one, they fired powerful jets of water towards the middle of the circle, causing them to collide and explode in a rush of droplets.

"Luvdisc!"

"Azurill!"

"Good job Caserin!"

From the sidelines, Ryan pulled out his Pokédex and the electronic voice rang out loudly in the gym. "**L****uvdisc**, _the Rendezvous Pokémon. Luvdisc group together during breeding season, covering the surface of the ocean in a brilliant pink._" Once the scan was finished, the orange haired girl who had been standing on the side of the pool looked up and glanced quizzically at Ryan and Nina, she was wearing a sleeveless yellow top with a hood, loose blue shorts, a small white belt with a pink buckle, and reddish-brown penny loafer shoes worn with white socks. She also had small backpack designed to look like a Spheal.

"May I help you?" The orange haired girls asked, recalling her Luvdisc and hugging the Azurill in her arms closer.

"Yes, I'm Ryan Summers and I'm here to challenge the leader of this gym for my next badge!"

"Bulbasaur!"

Misty smiled at Ryan and then nodded "Alright, we'll have a two on two battle to decide if your worthy of my badge." Motioning for Ryan to follow, Misty led him towards the water platform that he'd be standing on during their battle. Ryan stepped on first, but Bulbasaur was a bit hesitant at first "Bulba" he mumbled eying the large platform with cautious eyes, then he glanced at the pool water below. Ryan paused and glanced back at Bulbasaur, who was dabbing lightly at the pool water "what's wrong buddy?"

"Bulba… saur."

"It's not going to hurt you Bulbasaur, we just have to stand on this during the battle and if you fall into the water, you can just swim back up. Don't tell me you're afraid of a little pool water?" Ryan grinned teasingly and Bulbasaur glanced briefly at the water before looking at Ryan and the Seed Pokémon frowned slightly "Bulba!" He shook his head and hopped forward onto the platform "See, its not scary at all, right?" Bulbasaur gazed up at Ryan and gave a slow nod "Basaur."

"Alright, now let's win this!"

"Bulba!"

Misty smiled at the exchange and then pulled out her first choice, sitting Azurill gently at her feet "Politoed I choose you!" the Pokéball snapped open and in a flash of white light, in the pool appeared a large green toad Pokémon. Ryan pulled out his Pokédex and scanned it "**Politoed_,_** _the Frog Pokémon. It gathers groups of others as their leader. Its cries make Poliwag obey._"

"Poli!" it croaked from its side of the field.

Ryan thoughtfully glanced at Politoed and nodded slightly, tugging at one of the balls on his belt "Ekans, you're up!"

"Ekaaanss!" The purple snake hissed as it appeared from its capsule, leering at its opponent across the pool. From the sidelines, Nina raised a brow "He's using Ekans? I thought he'd use Beedrill, since it could fly and would be able to cover more ground in the air… I mean, can Ekans even swim in water?" As if on cue, Ekans slithered forward, out into the pool gliding gracefully on the watery surface and shooting off like a rocket at Politoed "Ekanss!"

"Bite!"

"Kaa!"

"Headbutt!"

"Poli!"

Ekans had lunged at Politoed, who dodged by ducking under the water, only to appear split seconds later, to butt its head into the mid lunging snake that was soaring over it. Ekans was sent sailing backwards from the headbutt, but with its flexible body, it managed to right itself and twist around in mid air and lunge at Politoed again, successfully biting it on the arm "Poli!" It croaked, shaking its arm, trying to get the snake off "Double Slap!"

"Toed! Poli! Toed! Politoed!"

Repeatedly, Politoed whipped its yellow paw across Ekans' face and nose in an attempt to get the snake off its arm after the fifth slap, Ekans quickly released Politoeds arm, slithering back to its starting platform beside Ryan and rubbed its face with its tail, sneering at the green frog, who jumped back onto one of the floating platforms nearby, rubbing its own sore arm as well "Use Glare!" Ekans met Politoeds gaze and the Frog Pokémon stiffened, becoming paralyzed in fear.

"Yes!" Ryan whooped leaping into the air.

"Oh no! Politoed, try to shake it off, dive underwater!"

"Don't let it get into the water, use Poison Sting!"

Just as Politoed was slowly inching its way towards the edge of the platform, Ekans opened its mouth and fired several purple darts at the frogs feet, causing it to back away to keep from getting hit "Poli…" it grumbled clenching its hands "Swagger!"

"Politoed!" Politoed crossed its arms and looked at Ekans in an intimidating manner, a red glow outlined its body "Ekaa?" Ekans attack was suddenly raised and instantly it became confused, eyes glowing red in anger "Kaaaannnsss!" It hissed flailing about wildly.

"Ekans! Snap out of it!"

As if it didn't even hear him, Ekans cried out again and fired off another Poison Sting attack, but this time at itself and at the water surrounding it "Ekans!" Ryan exclaimed, watching as Ekans shifted to biting itself. "Water Gun, Politoed!" Politoed croaked in affirmation and leaped into the air, opening its mouth and firing a powerful spiraling gush of water at Ekans, the force from the water, pushed the snake Pokémon back, knocking it off the platform it was on and slamming it into the wall of the stands "Ekaansss," it hissed lowly, dropping to the ground like a dead weight with its eyes swirling in defeat. "Way to go Politoed!" Misty smiled at her win and watched as Politoed danced around, clapping happily "Politoed! Politoed!"

"Return Ekans!"

After recalling Ekans, Ryan glanced at Bulbasaur, who nodded and took a step forward, ready to step in for battle "Poli." Politoed stopped its happy dance and took on a serious face "okay Politoed, use Water Gun!" Politoed opened its mouth where it stood, once again and fired another powerful spiral of water, this time at Bulbasaur "Dodge, then Leaf Storm!" Bulbasaur easily leapt out of the way of Water Gun on Ryan's command, the bulb on his back began to glow green and a swirl of leave came rushing out of it, the cyclone of green leaves then were shot at Politoed, sending the frog Pokémon flying backwards into the water "Poli…toed."

Politoed resurfaced from the water moments later, with swirled eyes, indicating defeat.

"Wow, your Bulbasaur must be really strong to be able to take out Politoed with one hit. Return Politoed!" Misty recalled the green frog and smiled at its Pokéball "you did a great job." Her gaze then lifted to meet Ryan and she grinned at the brown haired boy "You may have beaten Politoed, but there's no way you can beat my next Pokémon!" Reach behind her for her next Pokémon, Misty poised herself to throw down the next ball "Staryu, I choose—"

However, before Misty could call upon her Staryu, a flash of white light erupted from behind her and in the water appeared her Psyduck.

"Not you Psyduck!" the orange haired girl cried comically "You know you can't swim!"

"Psy." The yellow Pokémon quacked clutching its head and blinking, unaware of the fact that it was suddenly sinking into the pool, the only thing visible were the air bubbles that popped up. Nina, Ryan and Misty watched with confused and exasperated expressions respectively as Psyduck broke for air, flailing about madly "Psyduck! Psyduck! Psyyiyiyiyi!"

"Psyduck, return." Misty, palmed her face and sighed as she pulled out Psyducks Pokéball and recalled the yellow creature "Hehe, sorry about that," she murmured giving a sheepish grin, while both Ryan and Bulbasaur sweatdropped "now, for my actual Pokémon! Staryu, go!" The large star shaped Pokémon appeared in a flash, materializing onto one of the floating platforms.

"Kya!"

"**Staryu**._ The Star Shape Pokémon, the core of this Water Pokémon shines in a rainbow of seven colors, a core that is valued by some as a type of jewelry._"

"Bulbasaur, use Leaf Storm!"

"Bulba!" Another cyclone of glowing green leaves shot from the bulb on Bulbasaur's back, but Staryu was able to swiftly dodge them by spinning out of the way "Tackle!" Misty shouted and Staryu rounded back in mid air, spinning towards Bulbasaur and smashing harshly into the Seed Pokémon. "Bulba!" Bulbasaur flew backwards and was sent flailing off the platform and into the water.

"Bulbasaur!"

"Bulba! Bulba! Bulbasaur! Bulba!"

The instant Bulbasaur hit the water, he began flailing and splashing about madly in a panic, griping at the air in hopes of grabbing onto something solid, but he had been knocked a little ways away from the platform he and Ryan had been standing on. From his spot on their platform, Ryan called out to his panicked Pokémon "Calm down Bulbasaur! No need to freak out! It's not gonna hurt you, just relax and swim to another platform!" Slowly, Bulbasaur's mad flailing ceased at Ryan's words and he floated stilly on the water, kicking his legs beneath the surface to stay afloat. Glancing around, the Seed Pokémon spotted a platform that wasn't too far away and began to dog paddle towards it.

"Don't let it get on the platform Staryu! Rapid Spin!"

"Kya!"

Staryu dove into the water and disappeared.

"Bulba. Basaur?" While in the midst of dog paddling, Bulbasaur was glancing curiously around for Staryu, wondering where it would pop up and attack "Don't get caught off guard Bulbasaur, it could be anywhere!" Bulbasaur nodded and narrowed his eyes, scanning the still waters for any signs or shadows. It wasn't until it was too late, that Bulbasaur realized Staryu was under it. The Star Shape Pokémon had used Rapid Spin while being submerged in the water, resulting in a vicious twister appearing beneath the grass starter sucking it down below "Bulbaglg!" The water twister stopped as soon as Bulbasaur disappeared underneath the pool.

"Bulbasaur!"

"Piikachu."

"Oh no."

From their spot on the sidelines, Nina, Chewy and Sawyer stared at the still pool water with worry in their eyes "there's no way Bulbasaur is going to be able to survive underwater. Staryu's got the home advantage!" Nina exclaimed biting her lip nervously "Ryan might lose this match, because I honestly don't see how Bulbasaur can make a comeback after this turn of events."

On the platform, Ryan grit his teeth and clenched his fist, he hoped that Bulbasaur would be alright and resurface soon, because he had no clue how his partner was faring in an environment he wasn't used to. "C'mon Bulbasaur, don't let me down buddy." As if on cue, bubbles began to slowly float towards the surface and then, Bulbasaur came flying out of the pool, landing on his stomach with a wet thud on Ryan's platform. Second later, Staryu was spinning out afterward, landing in the platform with Misty, looking far from tired. "Bulbasaur!" Ryan dropped to his knees and placed a hand on his sprawled out partner "Bulbasaur? You alright?"

"B-Bulba." He gasped and spluttered, coughing up water. The poor guy was literally washed up, water dripped heavily from his bulb. Curiously, Ryan leaned over to peer in the opening of Bulbasaur's bulb, finding it filled completely with water "Hold on. I'll help you," Grabbing Bulbasaur around the stomach, Ryan lifted the Seed Pokémon and flipped him over, allowing the water that was lodged in his bulb to pour out, it remind him of a faucet as it fell towards the surface of the platform.

"Bulbasaaur."

Bulbasaur grumbled his thanks and Ryan grinned down at the Seed Pokémon once they were both sure all the water was out of his bulb "are you still able to battle? Cause we can stop right now and try again later if you want." Bulbasaur wriggled from Ryan's grip, landing on all fours he shook the excess water off his body and shook his head no "Bulba!"

"You sure?"

"Bulbasaur!"

"Okay then, as long as you're sure, then I'm sure!"

"Bulba!"

"Alright! I'm sorry for the holdup Misty, but me and Bulbasaur are ready now!"

On the opposite side of the field, Misty smiled and gave a slight nod "_Just like Ash._" Her grin widened at the thought of the dark haired boy "That's good to know. Seems to me your Bulbasaur got its second wind huh?" Both Ryan and Bulbasaur nodded in unison, giving her and Staryu a respective look of determination "I hope my words are true, don't disappoint me guys."

"Heh, we won't. Right Bulbasaur?"

"Bulba!"

"Hmm. Staryu, Water Gun!"

"Kya!"

"Leaf Storm Bulbasaur!"

"Bulba!"

The elements collided with both Pokémon's respective cries, a cyclone of glowing green leaves met a powerful swirling stream of water in the middle of the battlefield. "Push back!" Misty and Ryan exclaimed simultaneously and both Pokémon pushed more power into their attacks with all their might, but neither side was giving in. "_We have to win this._" Ryan closed his eyes and clenched his fists tightly, he felt raw emotion bubbling up inside just itching to burst, so he released it with a yell of encouragement. "Come on Bulbasaur, push back harder! I know we can beat them!"

"BULBAA!"

Ryan's eyes opened with a snap as he watched Bulbasaur respond to his shout, Leaf Storm was no longer being matched evenly with Staryu's Water Gun, instead it was pushing it back!

"Ryan's words must've really gotten to Bulbasaur, he's got Staryu on the run!" Nina exclaimed, watching with wide eyes as Staryu's Water Gun began receding due to the force from Bulbasaur's Leaf Storm.

"Hang in there Staryu!"

"K-Kya!" The jewel in Staryu's core shimmered pink and it gave off a siren link bing due to exhaustion "Staryu's getting tired," Misty murmured before her eyes flickered over to Bulbasaur, who was panting and looking tired himself "_but so is Bulbasaur. We've got to finish it, this last attack is going to decide the match._" With a flourish of her hand, Misty pointed at Bulbasaur "Finish this with Tackle Staryu!"

"KYA!"

On command, Staryu stopped firing Water Gun and slid underneath Leaf Storm as it rushed past and into a fast spin, aiming at Bulbasaur "Stand your ground Bulbasaur! Stop it with Vine Whip!"

"Bulba!"

As soon as Staryu got close enough, Bulbasaur's vines shot out from beneath the bulb on his back and they lashed out at the spinning star, grabbing a hold of two of Staryu's spinning edges, Bulbasaur managed to abruptly halt the Star Shaped Pokémon mid tackle "Heh." Ryan smirked at the successful capture "great job Bulbasaur, now Seed Bomb!"

"Bulba." Bulbasaur's smirk mimicked its trainers as the Seed Pokémon opened his mouth and charged the attack briefly, the white orb growing slightly larger than normal. Bulbasaur fired his attack and due to the close range, upon hitting Staryu and exploding on impact, a plume of smoke covered the two for a few moments before it dissipated and revealed Bulbasaur holding a limp looking Staryu.

"He won." Misty's lips quirked into a slight smile and she recalled her fallen Staryu "you did a good job Staryu and you deserve a nice rest." She whispered putting the ball away and picking up Azurill, whom was still at her feet "Azurill."

"We won! Bulbasaur you did it!" Ryan picked up Bulbasaur and hugged him tightly.

"Bulbaaa…"

"Huh?"

"B-Bulbasaur, he's. . ."

While still being held in Ryan's arms, Bulbasaur began glowing white and his form began to change, everyone watched in silence and awe as Bulbasaur's shape began to expand, the bulb on his back grew and leaves suddenly popped out of nowhere, the light weight that was once held in his arms increased and his skin grew slightly darker. Once the evolution process was over, Bulbasaur spoke up.

"Ivysaauur."

"Bulbasaur, you evolved!"

"Ivy."

"This is great Bulba— uhh, I mean Ivysaur!" Ryan laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head at the minor slip up "You've gotten a bit heavier buddy." Ivysaur grinned and the leaves on his back shook, releasing a pink powder, which Ryan managed to inhale, smiling at the sweet soothing smell. "Mm, that smells good. You've learned a new move too I see."

"Ivy!"

Once Misty, Ryan and his newly evolved Ivysaur, made it back onto the gyms walkway, Nina congratulated him on the win and Ivysaur's evolution, while Misty presented Ryan with the Cascade Badge "Thanks a lot Misty! That's two down, we're on a roll!"

"Ivy-saur!"

"Heh, good luck on your next Gym battle Ryan."

"Azurill!"

They were now standing outside the entrance of the Cerulean Gym, with Misty seeing the boy and his companions off. Ryan grinned back at Misty and nodded "thanks, we'll need it. Right buddy?" By his legs, Ivysaur nodded "well, we'll be going now. Bye!" The parting duo waved to the orange haired gym leader and began making their way towards the Pokémon Center so Ryan could heal his Pokémon and tell his mother the exciting news.

* * *

**Whoo! Double digits! I have also chosen my female, but she won't be appearing for a while. Also, thinking back to the beginning of this fic, I just realized that in the anime, Oak is in Isshu with Ash and his mom, so Ryan should have probably gotten his starter from Tracey, but whatever what's done is done. Also, I have chosen the female, it was tough, but I finally picked her and since I'm so indecisive, I decided that all those who sent me in female OCs, will get the chance to see their character debut in a few chapters. Because, I really liked all the girls and it was so hard choosing just one, so I've got my main and the rest of the girls will have chapter appearances. So it all works out in the end right? I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, so leave a review! Constructive Criticism is welcomed. Also, Happy New Years to you all!  
**


	11. The Cutting Edge!

**Chapter 11**

"Is this stuff even edible? I mean, yeah it _looks_ nice, but does it _taste_ good?" Nina stared down into the simple black bowl that was filled with a large helping of thick and spicy but slightly sweet smelling curry. On top of the sauce was a portion of rice and some yummy looking fried Tonkatsu, pork cutlet, sliced into sections and topped with mayonnaise. She poked at the pork tentatively with her chopsticks.

"Oh C'mon, it's not gonna jump out and bite you, just try it!"

"I dunno. . . here Chewy, you try it."

She held up the bowl and a slice of pork and rice dabbed lightly in curry and mayonnaise towards the yellow rodents mouth, but he shook his head and pushed it back in her direction, insisting for her to taste it instead.

"Piikachuu. Pika-Pi."

Feeling affronted, Ryan scowled at their reluctance to try his food, he decided to get the others to taste it, there was always Sawyer and Ivysaur.

"Fine! You guys don't have to eat my Tonkatsu curry! Ivysaur won't let me down, right buddy?" Ryan turned to glance at his starter Pokémon, and the brown haired boy nearly fell over when he saw the Seed Pokémon sniff the bowl set before him curiously before pushing it with his paw towards Sawyer, who gave the grass type a sheepish grin and muttered she wasn't really all that hungry.

"You guys are killing my self-esteem."

Ryan hung his head and sighed, glancing over to medium sized pot that was filled with his special curry and two smaller pots filled with rice and the fried Tonkatsu. He called it special, because this was the first dish he had ever managed to master under his mother's tutelage when younger. Since his father was usually out traveling around Kanto with Jelly and usually came home at random intervals, every time he came back home, his mother always made a large feast. Ryan had decided after one night, when his dad was actually home and the family was all together, while eating his mother's Tonkatsu, that he wanted to try and make a meal for once. That obviously wasn't the right thing to say in front of his mother, because she took her cooking very seriously and worked the poor boy to the bone in an attempt to teach him, not only the basics of cooking, but also how to emulate her skills.

_"No Ryan, you put too much seasoning in this one, throw it out!"_

_"Now this has too little seasoning!"_

_"It's too spicy! Try it again!"_

_"You watered down all the flavor! I'm not letting you off the hook until you get this _right_! You asked for it and I'm going to teach you."_

Ryan shuddered at the small memory of his mother standing over him threateningly with the wooden spoon. There were many sleepless nights and spoon slaps to the back of his hands during his childhood while he was learning how to cook, he thinks in the end however it was all worth it. Lifting his own chopsticks to his mouth, Ryan took a large bite from his own bowl of Tonkatsu curry and rice, smiling widely at the burst of flavor that erupted on his taste buds "_Mmm, still as yummy as ever._" Today Ryan and Nina were relaxing on an off beaten wooded path near the outskirts of Cerulean City and since it was such a nice day out, Ryan had suggested they have some lunch, this prompted Nina to dig into her bag and pull out one of the left over takeout lunches she had swiped from the Pokémon Center earlier for their departure, but Ryan waved that off and explained that he was going to make them lunch.

This notion was met with a moment of silence and disbelieving stares.

"You can cook?"

"This I've got to see."

"Pikachu."

"Ivysaur. . ."

They saw alright. Not one to back down from a challenge, or step down on a chance to show off his cooking prowess, Ryan displayed his hard earned cooking talent from when he was younger. He brandished a collapsible cooking set from his backpack, which none of the others even knew he had and got to work. Chopping the vegetables and apples, stewing the pork, preparing the roux, breading the pork and making the rice. In under an hour Ryan's Tonkatsu curry and rice was finished and placed in five noodle bowls for the group to share!

Too bad the group was still sketchy and refused to eat it.

Even Ivysaur was nervous about tasting it.

His own partner, turned against him over some Tonkatsu curry!

Oh well, he wouldn't give up yet. They were going to try his food if it was the last thing he did "C'mon guys, it's really good. See, I managed to finish my bowl." He displayed the empty bowl to the group of four "C'mon Ivysaur, won't you try it? For me buddy?" Ivysaur faltered at Ryan's words and inwardly the boy smirked, perhaps the best way to get to them guys was to get to Ivysaur, if Ivysaur tried it then maybe Nina and the others wouldn't be so cautious. "Ivy." The seed Pokémon grumbled moving its face towards the bowl and taking a small bite of the Tonkatsu.

The others watched as Ivysaur chewed the pork thoughtfully before swallowing.

"So?" Sawyer asked the question that floated around in the rest of their heads, _did it taste good_? Ivysaur's answer was a slight nod before he practically shoved his face back into the bowl. Seeing Ivysaur chow down like that, then prompted Nina to dig her own chopsticks back into her bowl and grab a small portion of Tonkatsu and rice, dipping it in the curry, she took a bite and her eyes widened in a large teary fashion.

"Wow! It's so yummy."

"Pika?" Chewy swiped a piece of Tonkatsu from Nina's bowl and chewed it slowly before swallowing. His eyes grew wide with tears as well while he cupped his cheeks cooing "Piiikachuu." Seeing the others enjoy the food and not wanting to feel left out, Sawyer swiped some of the food from Ivysaur's bowl and mimicked the others reactions. Ryan grinned and rubbed under his nose smugly "Hehe, toldja it was good."

"Scyther!"

Nina was about to comment on Ryan's smugness, but a screech caught the group off guard, along with the giant green bug Pokémon that came barreling out of the bushes and plowing straight into Ryan, sending both human and Pokémon to the ground in a heap. "Ryan! Are you okay?" Nina stood up and she and the Pokémon quickly peered down at the boy who was sprawled out flat on his back with a Scyther who was roughly his height if not a few inches more and weighing a ton. His eyes had turned into swirls due to the wind being knocked out of him and probably because he smacked against the ground a bit too hard.

Ryan slowly sat up and looked at Nina with crossed eyes, his head lolling back and forth and words slurring as he spoke "Jelly? Since when could you fly?"

"Jelly? Who—"

Instead of responding, Ryan just groaned and fell back against the ground, eyes swirling.

"Scyther! SCYther! Scy!"

"Well, this guy sure can eat." Ryan murmured, finally recovered from the earlier knockout, courtesy of Scyther, whom was now grinning and eating Pokémon food with the others to its heart content "I wonder where this Scyther came from. . ." Nina chewed thoughtfully as she got a second helping of Ryan's curry "who knows, I just want to know why it came barreling into me like that," the brown haired boy frowned and rubbed at the back of his head, which throbbed slightly, and pulled out his Pokédex to scan it.

**"Scyther**, _the Mantis Pokémon. Its claws are sharp as swords, and it is a powerful flyer. This Pokémon is rarely seen by humans and almost never captured."_

"Scyther, Scy." Scyther gave Ryan a sheepish apologetic grin.

"Scyther! There you are, I've been looking all over for you!"

"S-Scy!" Scyther froze at the sudden appearance of a young black haired green eyed boy dressed in a kimono, which consisted of dark blue haori with a plain white kosode underneath, dark blue hakama and some wooden geta on his feet that came bounding through the bushes. Resting on his hip was a lethal looking katana. The gang on the other hand blinked at the newcomer.

**x-X-x**

"So, you're Scyther's trainer?"

"Yes. My name is Ryuuta and Scyther is my partner."

"I'm Nina and this is Ryan, Chewy is my partner and Sawyer and Ivysaur belong to him." She pointed to the other three Pokémon that were gathered around Scyther, eating.

"Ah you guys train Pokémon? Well we're training to become Cut Masters."

"Uh, yeah. Cut Master?" Nina repeated and Ryuuta nodded, taking the bowl of Tonkatsu curry and rice Ryan offered with a thankful smile. He then proceeded to wolf down the food in a matter of seconds, and then held his bowl out for more, Ryan sweat dropped but dutifully refilled the boy's bowl. The only sounds heard throughout the clearing was the light clinking of chopsticks hitting the porcelain bowl Ryuuta was eating out of.

"Wow, you must have been really hungry." Nina noted and Ryan snorted, muttering dryly into his own bowl "starved looks more like it," this earned him an elbow to the side and the boy winced slightly before Nina continued "So, what's a Cut master?" Ryuuta just noisily finished his fifth helping and gulped down two entire bottles of water before responding. He wiped his mouth and a satisfied noise and then clasped his hands together in front of him and bowed his head slightly, causing his ponytail to fall over his shoulder "I am sorry for my rudeness. Thank you for the wonderful meal, I haven't eaten anything that good in days."

"But, to answer your previous question, a Cut master is someone who has mastered the art of cutting."

"Art of cutting?"

"Cutting is classified as art? What a lousy sounding art."

"Ryan!"

"Ouch! What? What'd I say?" Nina just glared at him and the boy stuck his tongue out at her in response, rubbing at his abused ear that Nina had just pulled. Ryuuta just continued speaking as though what transpired between Nina and Ryan didn't happen. "The art of cutting is when you become one with your blade and are able to cut down any obstacle in your way!" Ryuuta then faltered "or at least, that's what I think it is. The actual true art of cutting is a very vague concept and people tend to take it any way they want to." Ryuuta stood and then clenched his fist determinedly "That's why I think to be a true cut master, we have to be one with our weapons and be able to strike down any obstacle that stands in our way!"

"Scyther!" the Mantis Pokémon moved to stand beside its trainer and gave a determined cry as well, mimicking the boys pose.

"So, basically you guys are training to get stronger to be able to cut stuff down and then once you're able to do that, you're going to try and cut even tougher stuff down?"

"Mhm."

"Scy!"

"Sounds extremely redundant to me."

At Ryan's comment, both Ryuuta and Scyther fell down "w-well when you put it like that. . ." Ryuuta gave a sheepish laugh before sitting upright in a cross legged position "we were actually in the middle of training, but then Scyther had ran off."

"Ran off?"

"Mhm. We were just doing the same training routine in our training area as always. . ."

_"Okay Scyther, let's try it again! Cut!" Ryuuta pointed at one of the nearby straw dummies with his katana._

_"Scyther!" Scyther flew at the training dummy and slashed at it with its scythes, naturally the straw stood no chance against the razor sharp edges of Scyther's hand blades, but this was nothing new, they had been slicing and dicing up straw and sometimes log dummies for weeks now it was time for something a bit more tougher than pieces of wood and bound together straw dummies._

_"Scy?" Scyther blinked curiously at the new test dummy, it was a metal contraption shaped in the form of a person. Ryuuta tapped the metal with his katana and it made a dull sound "this is pure reinforced steel Scyther and in order for us to truly master the Cut move, we'll have to be able to cut down steel. Once we cut through that, we can cut through anything."_

_"Scyther?"_

_"Yeah, steel is one of the most hardest substances around, if we can cut through this, we'd be the strongest duo ever! Even Steel type Pokémon won't stand a chance!" He grinned widely at his partner "so, what do you say buddy, ready to train?" Scyther nodded and gave Ryuuta a determined look, flexing its scythes "Scyther!"_

"We'd train for hours on end, slashing and hacking away at the steel, but it'd never even get so much as a tiny noticeable scratch. It was always the same routine, we'd eat, sleep, wake up and then train, but the other day something happened."

_"Scyther. . ." Scyther glared at the metal contraption that served as a testing dummy, for the past two hours now it had been slashing away, trying to put even the tiniest of cuts in it, but the metal wouldn't bend to the Mantis Pokémons will. Hidden behind the trees, Ryuuta watched as his Pokémon continued to hack and slash away at the dummy with determined fire in its eyes. _

_ "Scy-ther! Scyther! Scy! Ther. . ."_

_Scyther paused for a moment to catch its breath and then went back to attacking the metal decoy, Ryuuta moved out from behind the trees and watched with worried eyes as the Scyther relentlessly attacked the decoy to no avail. It would be 10 minutes later when he decided that it was time for Scyther to just stop for a bit, it looked to be overworking itself "C'mon Scyther, maybe you should rest." Ryuuta placed a hand on Scyther's shoulder, but the green Pokémon just tensed under his grip and growled loudly, then lashed out at Ryuuta, whirling around angrily with its scythes poised and slashing at the boy, Ryuuta bought up his arm in defense and cried out when the blade sliced through the sleeve of his arm and pierced the skin. He gasped and then looked up at his Pokémon with wide eyes "Scyther, what's gotten into you?"_

_"S-Scy. . ." Scyther's eyes widened and it stared down at its scythes in horror, and then looked back at Ryuuta, who gave it a confused expression, cradling his injured and bleeding arm "S-Scyther. . ." Scyther began to slowly back away from Ryuuta and the boy extended his non injured hand "hey, wait a min— Scyther wait!" Turning its back on its trainer Scyther fled into the trees, disappearing out of sight._

"That was the last time I saw Scyther, until now."

"So, you guys were training and Scyther lashed out at you?"

"Yeah and I have no clue why." Ryuuta raised his left arm and lowered the sleeve, revealing a fresh wrap and bandage, Nina gasped softly at the wound and Ryan's eyes narrowed "The cut luckily didn't go too deep and missed the bone, but it does hurt when I move my arm too much, I haven't be able to practice my own sword cutting techniques because of it. . ." The three trainers shared a moment of silence before looking at the Mantis Pokémon and saw it was gazing down at its scythes with an upset expression. "Hey Scyther, don't look so glum. I know it was an accident and you didn't mean to strike me on purpose." Ryuuta stood and moved to stand beside his Pokemon, but Scyther noticed this movement and cautiously took a step back, causing Ryuuta's eyes to widen questioningly "S-Scyther?"

"S-Scy. . ." Scyther shook its head and took another step backwards, before looking down at its scythes again.

"Whoa, your Scyther's really bummed out about this."

"I know," Ryuuta sighed at Nina's words "what am I gonna do?"

"Make it feel better, duh." Ryan scoffed with a roll of his eyes.

"Easier said than done."

"No worries, we'll help!" Nina offered with a smile and Ryan raised an eyebrow and his tone turned disbelieving "we will?" Nina elbowed him once again in the side and he scowled at her, rubbing at his poor abused torso "don't be rude Ryan! Of course we'll help!" The brunette sighed "of course we will. . ."

**x-X-x**

"Okay, now the first step to solving the problem is admitting you have a problem!" Seated Indian style directly in front of Scyther, was a far too happy to be normal, Nina and in her hands was her sketchbook and pencil with Sawyer perched on her shoulder, due to Nina asking the mouse to play translator. Her glasses shined as she stared evenly at the mantis Pokémon while questioning it and in return, Scyther gazed warily at her "Scy. . ."

"Nina, this isn't therapy, we're just trying to cheer Scyther up, not listen to its life story." From his spot on the sidelines, he was cleaning his dishes and repacking up his collapsible kitchenware since Ryuuta had practically devoured the entire pot of curry, Ryan rolled his eyes while giving Nina an exasperated expression. "Oh hush Ryan, I don't see you doing anything, so let me do it my way!" She huffed lightly at the brunette and then turned back to Scyther "so Scyther, why are you so upset? Is it because you feel like your lashing out on Ryuuta is the reason why he got hurt and that's why you ran away? Or is it something else?"

"S-Scyther Scy. . . Scyther, scy scy!"

"I see. . ." Nina murmured scribbling into her sketchbook while Sawyer translated into her ear "so that's why you ran away."

"Scy." Scyther nodded.

"Well. . . you know, you could always try it again Scyther, running away isn't going to solve your problem."

"Scyther! Scy scyther!" Scyther furiously shook its head no and Ryuuta gaped from his spot beside Ryan, eyes widening in disbelief "she. . . she's actually conversing with him! How's she able to understand what Scyther's saying?" Finally finished packing up all his things, Ryan was now sitting down leaned back against a tree, idly scratching behind Ivysaur's ears as the Seed Pokémon curled up comfortably on his lap, eying the scene with interest and Chewy was dozing off near his hip, sprawled on his stomach. "It's because of Sawyer." He explained, gaze flickering to Nina and Scyther, the orange haired girl was currently trying to get her point across and the Mantis Pokémon was stubbornly refusing, with fierce head shakes "for some reason, she's able to talk." A gentle breeze wafted through the air and Ivysaur sighed, feeling relaxed as the wind tickled the leaves on his back "Ivy. . ."

"A talking Rattata, that's. . . new."

"Heh, that's the same thing I said." He smirked before glancing at Ryuuta, who despite his disbelieving tone, looked extremely worried. His eyes had a restless look in them and unconsciously his fingers clenched and unclenched around the hem of his kimono, Ryan's gazed softened as he spoke.

"This is really killing you, isn't it?"

"Mhm, this is the first time I've seen Scyther in nearly a week, after he ran away I wouldn't stop looking for him. I. . . I was scared," he admitted, running his good hand through his hair "I didn't know if he was alright, or if I did something stupid to make him run away. I didn't even care that he attacked me, or that I couldn't practice or that he nearly cleaved my arm off, y'know, I just wanted to see Scyther again. . . he's my partner." Ryuuta smiled slightly before continuing "I was so happy when I stumbled upon him today, but he seemed so. . . so nervous earlier, like he was afraid he might attack me again or something."

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Ryan placed a hand on Ryuuta's shoulder "I think, you guys need to talk." Startled, Ryuuta stared at Ryan with wide eyes "talk, b-But you saw Scyther, he won't let me come near him!" Ryan scoffed with roll of his eyes "then lock him in a corner him and make him listen! You guys aren't going to make any progress if you two keep avoiding the problem."

Ryuuta opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it and narrowed his eyes "I'm not going to force Scyther to do anything he doesn't want to do." He explained calmly to Ryan "so, if Scyther doesn't want to talk to me, then so be it. I can wait until he's ready."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"Alright then, I hope you'll forgive me for what I'm about to do then."

"Huh?"

"Ivysaur, Sleep Powder!"

"Ivy!"

"H-Hey, what are you. . ." Ryuuta trailed off slowly as his eyes began to droop and he fell face first onto the forest floor, knocked out cold. Startled by the sudden change of events, Nina looked at Ryan with wide confused eyes "Ryan, what's going on?" She watched as the boy kept the front of his hoodie protecting his nose and mouth and practically ignored her question before pointing at Scyther, who was just as lost and confused as she "I'll explain later when I wake you up, now, Sleep Powder again Ivysaur!"

"Ivy!" Ivysaur complied with a nod and the leaves on his back shook gently before they released a sparkling blue powder that filled the air, Nina, Sawyer and Scyther then followed Ryuuta's example and dropped like sacks to the floor, snoring loudly. Once he was sure the powder had dispersed from the air, Ryan lowered the front of his hoodie and sighed "alright, now that we've sold that problem, we need to find some rope. You think Nina might be weird enough to have some rope stashed in her bag?"

"Ivy?" Ivysaur blinked up in confusion at his grinning face.

"You know, because girls are. . ." he trailed off laughing weakly before shaking his head and sighing "oh never mind, she'd probably kill me if I went digging through her stuff anyway. Just start looking for some vines or something to tie these guys up with." Nodding Ivysaur parted ways with Ryan and went about searching through the forest for some thick vines.

"Mnnn. . ."

"Rise and shine sleepy head."

"R-Ryan, what are you. . ." rousing from her unplanned slumber, Nina rubbed at her eyes and blinked up at Ryan, who was standing over grinning "nice to see you're awake princess, now do me a favor and wake prince charming and Scyther over there." Swiping at her eyes once more, Nina's eyes widened in shock when she saw Scyther and Ryuuta tied up with a thick length of vine, the greenery was wound repeatedly around their arms and torso, locking the limbs tightly in place to keep from any movement.

"Ryan. . . what's going on?" She narrowed her eyes at the boy as he waved half of a small capsule under the noses of Chewy and Sawyer, causing them to dazedly awaken from their slumber "why are Scyther and Ryuuta tied up?" Ryan glanced back at Nina and tossed her one of the capsule he'd used to rouse the Pokémon awake, she caught it wordlessly and recognized them as smelling salts.

"Because if I don't do this now, these two would never solve their problem and we'd be stuck here forever trying to play the makeup game."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I said," he mumbled " for whatever reason Scyther ran away after attacking Ryuuta and—"

"Scyther ran away because he was scared, he lashed out on Ryuuta and he was angry for being unable to cut the dummy in half, he didn't mean to attack him on purpose but he was just so frustrated with himself that he let his anger pull through."

"Right. . . anyway, Ryuuta refuses to grow a spine and talk to Scyther, because he's afraid he'll just run away and be all shy again and basically he said he'll wait as long as he has to until Scyther feels ready to confront him and frankly, I don't have time for this, because I have a feeling, you'd stay here and continue to play doctor and I'd never be able to get my next badge."

Feeling offended at his words, Nina growled "I can't believe you'd actually think that I. . . I'd never! You— I— ooh. . ." Ryan just waved a hand dismissively at her attempt to form a comeback "yeah, yeah, we can save it for later. Just wake the sleeping twosome up now, the sooner we get this over with, the quicker we can leave." Huffing loudly, she turned on her heel and went over to the sleeping Scyther and Ryuuta, snapping open the smelling salt capsule and running both halves under the respective sleeper's noses. Ryuuta was the first to wake up.

"Nng. . . huh?" Blinking Ryuuta sat up, however when he moved to lift his arm, he noticed that he was currently tied up and instantly began to struggle in his bonds, but then stopped and winced because of his injury "h-hey! What's the big idea!" His eyes trailed over to Ryan, who stood a few feet away, watching with an unreadable expression "why'd you tie me up! I demand an explanation!" In response, Ryan gave Ryuuta a flat stare, causing the dark haired youth to bristle slightly before he went back to wriggling in his bonds, though being extremely cautious of his wound. "Untie me this instant or I'll—"

"Only if you work things out with Scyther. . ."

"Eh?"

"I'll only untie you, if you patch things up with Scyther."

"But Scyther won't listen!"

"Well then, it's a good thing I tied him up too huh?" Grinning, Ryan pointed slightly behind Ryuuta and the boy craned his head to see what he was pointing at. An expression of shock was etched on his face as he found his Scyther had been bound tightly with vine as well "Scyther?" The Mantis Pokémon lifted its head at the sound of its name being called and it glanced at Ryuuta, posture stiffening in the bonds "S-Scy?"

"Untie Scyther right now!"

"No dice. Not until you two can talk your problems out without either of you trying to avoid it." Ryan slid his eyes over to Scyther who was flexing its arms and twisting its appendages at an angle in an attempt to slice the vines and get free "I wouldn't do that if I were you Scyther," Ryan warned, his eyes narrowing "the second you break free, you'll only be knocked out again by Ivysaur's Sleep Powder and we'll just tie you up again," he shrugged before turning his back on the bug and the boy and stating simply "or I could have Ivysaur Poison Powder you into submission, either way I'm going to get you two to talk to one another, so your choice." While Scyther and Ryuuta exchanged nervous glances behind Ryan's back, Nina was talking to the now confused Chewy and Sawyer.

"What's going on, why are…" Sawyer paused to paw at her eyes, while Chewy released a yawn "they all tied up?"

"Ryan is trying to get these two to make up, so we can move on," she answered folding her arms "personally, I think he's going about this the wrong way and my way was much less demanding."

"So," Ryan whirled back around and glanced at Ryuuta and Scyther "will you two talk to each other like a normal trainer and Pokémon, or do I have to resort to underhanded persuasion tactics?"

Ryuuta scowled slightly, before sighing and dropping his head in defeat "No. I… I'll talk to Scyther." Ryan's eyes lit up and a grin stretched widely on his face "great! Now get to it." He made a shooing motion with his hands and Ryuuta gave the boy a cautious stare before looking at Scyther. "Hey... um Scyther," he began awkwardly "I'm sorry." Scyther snapped his head up at Ryuuta and its eyes widened at the apology "Scy?" Ryuuta took a deep breath and then exhaled it in one large huff. "I don't know why you attacked me… or why you got angry, but whatever the reason is for…" he glanced away sadly "I'm sorry. I don't know why you got scared and ran away, but you know I don't really care about all that. I'm just happy you're okay an-and if you hate me then I'm fine with that too," he admitted softly "I just… I just missed you Scyther and you had me so worried when you ran off. I couldn't sleep for the first couple of night you were gone and I even stopped eating for a bit, but then I realized starving myself and becoming sleep deprived wouldn't help me find you."

He laughed bitterly at these words "so, when I finally saw you today, I was so happy! You were safe and all was well again, but..." he trailed off slightly and lowered his gaze before speaking up again "but then I saw the way you looked at me, like you were scared and… and it made me feel horrible, because I was the reason you looked like that… so, I-I understand if you hate me Scyther." Ryuuta turned his gaze towards Scyther and the bug Pokémon's eyes were wide "S-Scyther! Scyther scy, scyther scy!" Scyther shook its head furiously in its bonds and met Ryuuta's gaze with watery eyes "scyther scyther scyther scy scy!"

"Hey, what's Scyther saying?" Nina asked, glancing at Sawyer, who began to translate for all the humans present "Scyther is saying, that he doesn't hate Ryuuta and admits that he was afraid he attacked him and he ran away because he thought Ryuuta would hate him, he was blinded by his anger from not being able to slice up the training dummy and then ran after that." Once Sawyer had finished translating, Ryuuta gave Scyther a solemn look and he opened his mouth to speak, "Scyther, I didn't—" but Ryan cut him off.

"So... all of this is basically just one big misunderstanding because Scyther was being a coward?" Ryan folded his arms across his chest and scowled, while Nina frowned. "That's not a nice thing to say Ryan."

"I'm just calling it like I see it," the brunette scoffed with a nonchalant shrug "this could have all been avoided if Scyther grew a spine."

"Ryan!"

"I'm just saying," he began while raising his hands defensively and glancing away from the scolding glare Nina was giving him "if Scyther hadn't run away, none of this would've happened and—"

"Scyther isn't a coward!" Ryuuta spoke up from the spot where he sat, anger clearly radiating off his features as he defended his Pokémon "He's strong and loyal and trustworthy!"

Ryan however, seemed to disagree.

"Tch, if Scyther were really loyal and trustworthy he wouldn't have attacked you and bolted after doing so."

"What'd you say—" Ryuuta grit his teeth, wincing slightly, and rose to his feet, somehow managing not to fall due to the inability to use his arms at the moment.

"Calm down Ryuuta," Nina said, raising a hand to the glaring young man and then turned back to Ryan "and what's gotten into you, why are you being so… so mean!"

"I'm not being mean, I'm being truthful. Scyther is a weakling and a coward, he can't even slice up a metal dummy, I bet they suck at battling too." Nina gaped and her eyes widened "Ryan! How could you say something like that?" Ryan just grunted in response and then waved his hand, it assumed to be some sort of signal, because Ivysaur's bulb began to glow and a small rush of leaves shot at the bound Scyther and Ryuuta, slicing cleanly through their bonds, allowing them freedom. Nina turned her wide gaze to Ryuuta and Scyther and glanced at one another briefly before glaring at Ryan.

"Scyther is not weak!"

"Sure he's not."

"You'll see," Ryuuta growled, clenching his fist at his sides "the next time we meet Ryan, me and Scyther are going to kick your butt!"

"Oh yeah?" He asked, raising an eyebrow "and how are you going to do that?"

"When we master our Cut technique, you better be prepared, because we _won't_ lose!"

"Heh," Ryan smirked condescendingly while narrowing his eyes at Ryuuta and Scyther "try not to run away when I floor your sorry butts alright?" Somehow, Ryuuta's glare got even darker at Ryan's words and he turned towards Scyther "c'mon Scyther we've gotta get going, so we can show this jerk whose boss."

"Scy!"

"Hey – wait! Ryuuta! – don't…" Nina had attempted to stop the boy from storming away, but she trailed off when his figure and Scyther's disappeared beyond the tree lined area. Growling, she whirled around and glared at Ryan, getting ready to demand an explanation, but faltered slightly upon noticing his smug grin "w-what are you so smug about? You just chased them off! Why are you such a jerk?" he winked at the glaring Nina in response "all according to plan," at her confused expression he elaborated "just think about it Nina. At the rate those two were going we were in for some long overly drawn out confession that I really don't have time for, so to speed things up abit I got them angry. They completely forgot about feeling sorry for one another and got angry at me and decided to go and train, so they can prove me wrong and show me Scyther isn't the weakling coward I said he was." Nina gave Ryan a disbelieving stare "and all of this was a part of your brilliant plan?" Ryan nodded "yeah," he then grinned "pretty cool huh, we totally had you guys fooled. Right Ivysaur?"

"Ivy!"

"Wait, Ivysaur was in on this too?"

"Yeah, I started plotting while you guys were still asleep."

". . ."

"Hey, what's with that face? You look constipated or somethin'."

"It's nothing, and Ryan…"

"Yeah?"

"Please don't do that again, I hate being left in the dark."

". . ."

**x-X-x**

"SCYther!" Scyther's scythes came together harshly in a downward slash at the metal humanoid looking training dummy.

"Great job buddy! Keep it up, you're doing great!"

"Scy!"

Once again, Ryuuta and Scyther found themselves at their training grounds, with Ryuuta watching as his partner relentlessly slashed at the metal contraption, their previous misunderstanding forgotten as they started up training again "_Just you wait Ryan, don't underestimate us. As soon as Scyther can cut through that metal and my arm gets better, we're coming after you!_" Ryuuta's eyes narrowed and then his fist clenched "just you wait," his eyes slid over to Scyther, who was slashing away determinedly at the metal test dummy "we'll be stronger than ever the next time we meet."

"Scyther!"

* * *

**Ugh, I hate how I ended this, but my brain farted and I couldn't think of anything else :/  
**

**Alright, so I'm 11 chapters in. This is good, its _progress_. Now, I'm in need of a Beta, this will be my first time ever requesting for one, so I'm new at this. I want someone who will tell me what I need to know and tell me what I'm doing wrong, I want someone who can give me the nitty gritty and wont sugar coat their words, harsh criticism is probably the best kind, so long as it helps my writing rather than hinder it. I'm looking for a Beta, because personally I believe this could be better than it already is, alot better actually, but I have no clue how to make it that way on my own. So, if anyone is interested in being my Beta, I'd appreciate it greatly. Just leave a review or PM me and we can work something out I guess, I'll have you know though if you plan on BETAing me, I hope you're patient, my updates are sporadic and sometimes I'm just lazy and it takes me a while to write and then there's the occasional block period I get into but yeah if interested we can discuss my writing flaws over PM or what have you.  
**


	12. Ryan and Nina's PokéSitting Service!

**Chapter 12**

"Nina."

_Skrtch. Skrtch. Skrtch._

"Nina, what are you doing?"

_Skrtch. Skrtch. Skrtch._

"Nina? Hey, Nina, are you listening to me?" Peering at the orange haired girl seated on the stump of a log curiously, Ryan watched as she scribbled furiously into her special sketchbook, the green one, her pencil was making harsh strokes onto the drawing paper as she went about detailing her latest inspiration. Ryan moved behind her and glanced over her shoulder at whatever it was she was drawing at so attentively, his brow quickly raised and a look of confusion set in on his featured "hey, that's not a Pokémon, it's a person. Who is that guy?" Nina stiffened and her hand stopped moving, she blinked once and then glanced at Ryan out for the corner of her eye, his own eyes still fixed on the clearly human face and feathery looking hair she was still in the midst of touching up. A hint of red made its way to her cheeks and Nina quickly slammed her book shut, closing her eyes in embarrassment "I-It's nothing, so don't worry about it." she squeaked out, stuffing the sketchbook into her bag and zipping it closed.

"Nothing huh?"

"Mhm."

A short silence fell between them.

Only the sounds of their Pokémon in the distance could be heard. Ryan folded his arms behind his head, his posture relaxed, and inclined his head slightly towards her.

"Soooo… is he your boyfriend?"

Nina froze and almost choked on her spit. Her face heated up again and she shook her head furiously "n-no way!" A devious grin made its way onto his face "Ohh, I get it, you like this guy! So who is he? I don't remember seeing him," Ryan hummed thoughtfully to himself and tried to wrack his brain for anything that could give him a clue as to who this person was "hey wait, what about the other day when I went to train for the Cascade Badge, you came back looking awfully happy." When he saw Nina's flush growing at his response, Ryan grin widened like a Meowth that got its cream "ohoho, so _that's_ what you and Chewy were doing that day. You were out looking for a boyfriend!"

"H-He's not my boyfriend!" she exclaimed huffing "he's just this really nice guy I met is all! A-and I wasn't out looking, we ran into each other!"

"Riiiight," he gave her a flat stare that clearly meant he wasn't buying it "and you mean to tell me you draw all nice guys you meet in your sketchbook that's predominately filled with pictures of Pokémon?"

"I-I— ju— doh— S-Shut up!" Nina stammered for a response, glaring at him "You wouldn't understand. You weren't there."He snickered at her flustered state, watching as she stood up and marched over to where the Pokémon were gathered. "She is so in denial," he mumbled to himself with a grin before glancing around the area thoughtfully, this was a good place to train. Reaching onto his belt, Ryan pulled out two Pokéballs "Alright, Spearow and Sandshrew come out!" He threw down the balls and out popped the bird and mouse Pokémon; Spearow took to the skies with a caw, circling the area once before landing on Ryan's outstretched arm, while Sandshrew stood by Ryan's side "Spearow!" Ryan grinned and stroked the bird on its head "hey Spearow, it's been a while since you've seen some action, so I was thinking today we could do some training," he glanced at the bird perched on her arm "sounds good?" Spearow gave a curt nod and Ryan jerked his arm, allowing the bird to take flight.

"Alright, we're gonna work on your dodging and defending," he pointed to Spearow "now Sandshrew, use Swift!" Sandshrew nodded and opened its mouth, firing multiple yellow stars at Spearow, who easily dodged them by veering out of the way and then responding with Drill Peck, its beak glowing a vibrant white as it zoomed in on Sandshrew, spinning rapidly like a drill "Spear!" Sandshrew quickly curled into a ball, baring its rock hard exterior to Spearow, resulting in the bird crashing face first into it and screeching in pain while Sandshrew was unaffected "now Sandshrew, use Poison Sting!" Sandshrew complied by uncurling from its ball and fired multiple purple darts from its mouth at Spearow, who quickly flapped its wings backing away from Sandshrew to get out of its firing range "Spear!"

Spearow stretched its wings and ascended higher into the air, climbing higher and higher until it was blocked by the light of the sun, while down on the ground below Ryan spoke to Sandshrew. "Be on your guard Sandshrew, Spearow could catch you off guard and attack at any moment, so be ready for it." Sandshrew nodded and stiffened its posture, ready to take anything Spearow was going to dish out "ROW!" Spearow came zooming out of the sky, its body spinning as it performed its Drill Peck attack and Sandshrew opened its mouth, launching another Poison Sting, to meet Spearow's drilling beak, however a Pokémon came flying out of the bushes, right in the middle of both attacks paths. Ryan's eyes could only widen in shock as this Pokémon got hit directly with a Poison Sting and Drill Peck attack simultaneously, while Sandshrew and Spearow froze. "Oh no." He ran over to the unlucky recipient of the attack and saw it was a tiny pink humanoid Pokémon with large lips and yellow hair "Smooch…" she groaned dazedly as swirls appeared in her eyes "a Smoochum? What's one of these doing all the way out here…" Ryan pulled out his Pokédex to scan it.

"**Smoochum**_,_ _the Kiss Pokémon. The pre-evolved form of Jynx. This sweet natured Pokémon has sensitive lips, which it uses to explore and examine with._"

"Hey," Ryan gently gathered her in his arms and lightly shook Smoochum, hoping to rouse her awake "hey, you alright Smoochum?" Smoochum just groaned weakly in response and Ryan brushed his hand over her head, he realized she was rapidly burning up "Great. Freaking great," he huffed loudly before glancing at Spearow and Sandshrew "Spearow, go get my bag. I left it with Ivysaur and Sandshrew," he paused thoughtfully before thrusting the baby Pokémon in the mouse's arms "hold Smoochum." Sandshrew blinked, but nonetheless held onto Smoochum, while Ryan got to his feet and started rummaging through the bushes.

Sandshrew could only blink in confusion as it watched its trainer mutter under his breath whilst he peeled back several bushes in search of whatever it was he was looking for. Moments later, Spearow came back, with Nina and the Pokémon in tow, she was gripping Ryan's bag loosely in her hands, but promptly dropped it upon noticing the feverish Smoochum in Sandshrew's arms, her eyes quickly shot towards the crouched form of Ryan, who was still digging thorough the bushes "Ryan, what happ— what are you doing?" She asked watching as he peeled back one of the nearby bushes, before snatching something from its branches.

"Looking for something. Never mind got it!" Ryan pulled back out of the bush and revealed to her an Oran Berry "I'm guessing this bush is why Smoochum was even near here in the first place, but I have no clue why she jumped in the middle of Spearow and Sandshrew's attack like that." He just shook his head and sighed before grabbing his discarded bag off the ground and digging through it, he pulled out a medium sized orange pouch with a blue drawstring and tossed it towards his starter "hey Ivysaur and Sawyer, do me a favor and fill this bag with those Oran berries from that bush, they might come in handy later." Ivysaur nodded and grabbed the bag with one of his vines, while Sawyer started darting through the bushes, getting to work. Ryan dug back into his bag and pulled out a clear jar, filled with a light green powder. Nina and the others eyed him curiously as he also pulled out glossy black ceramic mortar, with a white interior and a matching pestle that was similar in design, having a glossy black handle and a white end.

"What is all this stuff?" Nina asked, narrowing her eyes as he poured a small amount of the powder into the bowl and snapped the Oran Berry in half, dropping one half into the bowl and eating the other, chewing briefly before swallowing and responding to her question "it's used for making herbal remedies. Smoochum's been poisoned. So, I'm going to use the Healing Powder and the Oran Berry, to not only get rid of her fever, but cure the poison too."

"Ohh. Hey wait a minute!" From his perch on her shoulder, Chewy jumped slightly at her exclamation "Since when can you make herbal remedies? Isn't that a bit far too advanced for someone your age? I mean, cooking is one thing, but herbs? Where'd you even learn to do stuff like this?" Nina gave Ryan a skeptic glance, "I guess," he shrugged while continuing to finely mash the berry and powder mixture together with the pestle until it became a teal liquid substance "but when you're raised by a crazy medical nut for a father, it's not advanced at all. This is all just basic medicinal technique I was required to learn since I was young. I can easily cure status conditions, treat wounds and point out several healing herbs but that's about it, my dad has way more medical knowledge than I do."

"And your dad taught you how to do all this?"

"Among other things," he snorted bitterly before reaching into his bag and grabbing a spoon, he then motioned for Sandshrew to move closer before gathering a spoonful of the liquid and positioning it at Smoochum's mouth and commanding her softly "open up Smoochum, this is going to help your fever go down." Smoochum slowly opened her mouth and swallowed the liquid "Smooch," she grimaced at the slightly bitter taste it left in her mouth "I know it might taste bad, but you need two more spoonfuls and then you can have some water," Smoochum's lips twitched in protest, but she reluctantly complied with Ryan's instructions, taking two more spoonfuls of the medicine and greedily guzzling down half the water bottle that was presented to her afterwards "Smoo," she cooed and Ryan sighed, taking the Kiss Pokémon from Sandshrew's arms and recalled it, along with Spearow. He then handed Smoochum to Nina to hold, while he cleaned off his spoon, mortar and pestle and packed up the jar of healing powder.

"We're finished picking the berries!" Sawyer and Ivysaur came back from their berry collecting with the bag filled with Oran Berries, which Ryan also packed away for later use and muttered a small thanks to the duo, Sawyer was perched on top of Ivysaur's head, eyeing him curiously as he stuffed his things back into his bag, she glanced briefly at Nina who was holding the now snoozing Smoochum "so, what are you gonna do with her?" then turned back to Ryan. "Put her back in the bushes where she came from and hope whoever she belongs to will find her?" He answered with such an even tone, Sawyer wasn't sure if she should take him seriously or not, though Nina was the one who spoke up, her tone incredulous "You're joking right?" Ryan snorted while zipping up his bag and pulling it onto his shoulders "of course, I'm not _that_ heartless," he walked over to Nina and took Smoochum from her arms "let's get moving, maybe there's a Pokémon Center or something around here where we can find out who's the trainer."

"You think she might've wandered away from her trainer or something?"

"It's possible, or she could be wild and wandered away from her family, but since she's currently out like a light, we can't really ask her and knowing my luck, we're bound to run into someone or something eventually," as if on cue, some of the bushes nearby began to rustle and Ryan glanced at Nina with an exasperated expression "see what I mean?" The bushes stopped rustling and a Pichu came, darting out of the bushes and glancing around momentarily, before its eyes landed on the soundly sleeping Smoochum in Ryan's arm "P-Pichu!" Pichu's eyes went wide and it turned towards the bush where it came out of "Pichu pichu!"

"What's up Pichu, did you find her?" The voice floated through first and then came the body, an older male stepped out of the bushes. He had blue-black short cropped hair and green eyes dressed in a blue apron with a white Pokéball symbol on the middle, underneath the apron he wore a simple white shirt, rolled up to the elbow with brown pants and black shoes. "Pichu pichu! Pichu!" Pichu cried bouncing on the balls of its toes while pointing directly at Ryan and the guys eyes widened slightly at the motionless Smoochum in his arms, but upon noticing her soft breathing, they lowered and he sighed in relief "she's alright Pichu, she's just sleeping." Slowly Pichu lowered its arms and then clambered up Ryan's arm, startling the boy. "Pichu?" Pichu tilted its head slightly and then poked Smoochum's stomach, causing her to mumble and snuggle deeper into Ryan's hold "Smooch…" she muttered clutching tightly onto his bicep.

"So, this Smoochum is yours?" Nina asked and the guy gave a slight nod "Sorta," he began with a sheepish grin "my grandparents own the Daycare Center around here, and she's one of the baby Pokémon we usually keep around for trainers who might want them. She's a bit of a troublemaker though, always wandering off and getting into trouble, this is the fifth time she's wandered off this week." He sighed and then shook his head before looking at the two kids and introducing himself "I'm Leon."

"I'm Nina and this is Chewy" she said brightly and then motioned to the yellow mouse on her shoulder, who waved "pika pikachu!"

"I'm Ryan," he murmured "and this is Ivysaur and Sawyer." Both his Pokémon gave curt nods.

"So, you said you're grandparents owned a Daycare Center?"

"Yeah, it's not that far, just up ahead actually." Leon pointed past the bushes and trees behind him "You can tell me how Smoochum wound up sleeping in your arms when we get there."

**x-X-x**

"So that's what happened."

"Yeah, she just came flying out of nowhere and then BAM! Next thing I knew she was on the receiving end of two direct hits."

"Her curiosity leads her into all sorts of trouble," Leon sighed with a small smile on his face "but, I am glad you were able to heal her poison. There isn't any Pokémon Center around and our current healing machine is missing a few parts before it can get up and working again."

"Whoa! Ryan, you gotta come see this!" Nina came running from out one of the two back rooms with Chewy on her shoulder and Ivysaur and Sawyer following behind "there's Pokémon Eggs everywhere!" Leon chuckled at Nina's excitement and stood up from the table where he and Ryan sat "how about I give you guys a tour of the Daycare Center?" Nina's eyes were alight with joy and she quickly nodded, while Ryan gave a shrug "Follow me then," he then motioned for the two children and their Pokémon to follow him past the counter and into the large room on the right. "This is our Egg room," he explained with a sweep of his hand, while Nina and the Pokémon were in silent awe, gazing at all the different types of eggs that were lining the shelves on the walls, while Ryan was gazing at the large machine in the middle of the room, which had three eggs resting under a warm light. He moved closer to the machine and peered at it curiously "that's our incubator," Leon murmured, startling the boy by coming up from behind him and placing a hand on his shoulder "it holds up to six eggs and speeds up the hatching process by quite a margin, we only use it for when Nurse Joy is ready to give out starter Pokémon in Vermilion City or trainers who might want to capture a specific Pokémon."

"Wait, did you say Nurse Joys gives out starter Pokémon?" Nina asked, turning away from the yellow and black striped Pokémon egg she was glancing at, to look at Leon, who nodded "Not all towns have Professor's to officially give out starter Pokémon, so Nurse Joy's are often certified to hand them out and we supply her with the Pokémon."

"Ohh, that's cool! But how do you get all the starter—"

"Magby!" Nina was cut off mid-sentence, by one of the baby Pokémon that came wandering in, its eyes filled with tears as it ran over to cling to the leg of Leon "magby mag magbyyyy!" it whined and Leon bent down to its eye level and asked what was wrong "mag magby," it pointed to the wall on the left and Leon stood, gathering Magby in his arms "I see." He mumbled and the kids were confused "what's wrong?" Leon sighed and motioned for the two to follow him as he exited the incubator room and entered the nursery room where several other baby Pokémon were being held, however when they entered the room, they saw most of the baby Pokémon huddled in the corner, while Pichu and Smoochum were head to head, glaring at one another fiercely. "It would seem Smoochum has awakened," earlier after Leon had led the duo to the center, he had placed the sleeping Smoochum in the nursery room with the other baby Pokémon and then had Ryan explain to him what happened to her.

"Pichu! Pichu!"

"Smooch! Smoochum!"

"What's going on?" Nina asked, peering over Ryan's shoulder and watching the two baby Pokémon bat heads, Pichu's cheeks were beginning to spark and Smoochum's hand was starting to glow, however, before either of them could launch an attack, Leon walked up and nudged them both apart with his foot, while he placed Magby on the floor and then turned to give the two fighting Pokémon a stern leer "Smoochum. Pichu." He began and the two Pokémon froze "what have I told you two about fighting. You're scaring the others," he motioned to the other Pokémon that were huddled in the corner and the tear streaked Magby's face, who sniffled and swiped at its eyes in response "Pichu pichu," Pichu mumbled, its ears dropping and an apologetic pout on its face, Smoochum on the other hand scoffed and crossed her arms, turning her head away from Pichu "Smooch..." her eyes then wound up landing on Ryan and Nina, who were still standing in the doorway, watching the scene in interest. "Smoochum!" Smoochum's eyes brightened and she ran up to Ryan, then leaped onto him and latched onto his arm tightly, startling the boy immensely "w-what the? H-hey! Let go!" Ryan tried to pull the Kiss Pokémon off his arm and then switched to shaking his arm in hopes of flinging her off, but she had a grip like iron and refused to let go. "Smoochum smooch!" She cooed nuzzling her cheek against his arm and tightening her hold, much to the chagrin of Ryan, who just stared down at her awkwardly, his eye twitching slightly "eheh…"

"Smoochum, let his arm go." Leon commanded walking over to the younger boy and plucking her off his arm with ease, Smoochum pouted as Leon placed her back on the floor beside Pichu "sorry about that Ryan," he gave the boy a sheepish smile and turned to Smoochum, getting ready to give her a minor scolding, however a low beeping noise sounded from the main room.

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

"What's that?" Nina asked following Leon as he quickly rushed out of the room to answer the low beeping. It was coming from the video phone positioned up against the far right wall, Leon picked up the phone and a slightly older looking man, probably in his mid 20s, wearing a bandana wrapped around his head and covered in grease stains appeared on screen.

"Hey Leon, I got those extra parts your grandparents wanted for the healing machine, think you could swing by and get them?"

"I would Eric, but I don't have anyone to watch the…" Leon trailed off and slowly turned to glance at Nina, who was blinking curiously back and him and then, his gaze slid to Ryan, who was currently trying to politely inch away from Smoochum, who had this odd glint in her eyes while she edged closer to him. He then turned back towards the video phone and smiled widely. "I'll be there to pick up the parts in 30 minutes, let me just consult my baby-sitters first," with that said, he hung up the phone and whirled around to face the kids "hey, do you guys think you could do me a favor?"

"What kind of favor?" Ryan asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously and stepping back slightly to avoid the closed eyed leaping Smoochum, who ended up latching onto Ivysaur's flower instead, causing the Seed Pokémon to sigh heavily and attempt to pull her off with his vines, while she nuzzled the flower affectionately believing it was Ryan's arm. "I have to go pick up these parts for our healing machine in the village that's near here, but I don't have anyone to watch the Pokémon while I'm gone," he grinned sheepishly, bringing up a hand to rub the back of his head "so, I was wondering if you kids could do me a favor and watch these guys until I get back? I know we just met, but this is kind of important and I promised my grandparents I'd fix the machine by the time they got back."

"Sorry, but I'd rather not—" Ryan began to protest, but Nina was quick to cut him off, slapping a hand over his mouth and nodding her head furiously "Sure! We'll watch the Pokémon for you, go ahead and get those parts, we'll take good care of them."

Leon's eyes widened, before he broke out into a large grin "thanks so much! I'll be back within the hour!" with that, Leon was out the door before the kids could even blink, a moment of silence washed over them, before Ryan began to mumble around Nina's hand "What's _with_ you?" He asked snatching her hand away from his mouth. Meanwhile, Ivysaur had finally managed to detach Smoochum from his flower and the Kiss Pokémon eyed the scene between the two humans with interest.

"What's with me? What's with _you_!" She fired back.

"Why did you agree we'd help him watch these Pokémon? The only reason we came here was to drop Smoochum off and be on our way. Not get roped into being babysitters."

"Because, it's the right thing to do! Why don't you like helping people? This is the third time, you've protested against helping someone, first it was with Aaron, then you refused Ryuuta and now you don't want to help Leon." Nina clenched her hands at her side, glowering at the brunette why was he so against helping others in need?

"I started my journey to become a Pokémon Master or at the very least a good trainer," he growled, returning her glare and crossing his arms across his chest "I didn't start this journey so I could go around helping every person I run into that has a problem!"

"Helping people is important!"

"More like time consuming and hardly worth my time! I could be doing other important things, like training or winning another badge! Not worrying about the affairs of others."

"Is that really all you care about? Getting stronger and winning badges? There's more to life than—"

"B-Bi, bibi?"

A gentle tug at her pants leg caused Nina to halt her response and she glanced down to see an Elekid staring up at her "what's wrong Elekid?" Elekid lifted its bulky arms and flexed its claws "bibibi!" The anger on Nina's face quickly melted and she smiled gently at the spark plug looking Pokémon "you wanna get picked up, is that it?" When Elekid nodded at her question, her smile widened and she bent down to pick up the baby Pokémon, hugging it gently while glancing at Ryan and frowning slightly at the boy "regardless of what you think and what you prefer to do, we have to watch these Pokémon now until Leon comes back, so I suggest you suck it up and stop being so grouchy, he said he'd be back within the hour, that's not such a long time." Nina then glanced back down at Elekid and smiled again "let's put you back in the room with the others, okay?"

"Bibibi!"

Ryan scoffed to himself as Nina headed towards the nursery room with Elekid in her arms and Chewy on her shoulder. "Tch, I am not being grouchy," he glanced down at Sawyer and Ivysaur, giving both of them a questioning look "am I being grouchy?" the two Pokémon glanced briefly at one another, before nodding simultaneously "yeah, you kinda are." Sawyer answered "oh, what do you guys know." Ryan snorted, crossing his arms and looking away from both Pokémon, who rolled their eyes "don't get mad at us, you were the one who asked," Sawyer muttered avoiding Ryan's narrowed gaze when she finished.

"Let's just head outside, we're training."

"Training? But, I thought you were going to help Nina watch the Pokémon."

Ryan waved Saywer's inquiry off as he motioned for his Pokémon to follow him outside "Bah, Nina can handle that, I've got better stuff to do than watch a bunch of baby Pokémon."

"Nina's not going to like that," Sawyer murmured with a slight frown, as Ryan led them a few feet away from the Day Care. The brunette scoffed in response "and since when," he paused and glanced briefly around the area, nodding to himself at the training spot "do I care about what Nina thinks?" Placing a hand on his hip, he peered down at Sawyer and Ivysaur with a grin.

"RYAN SUMMERS YOU GET YOUR BUTT BACK IN HERE THIS INSTANT!"

Both Pokémon and human winced simultaneously at Nina's sudden scream, which wafted through the open window at the front of the daycare center. Both Pokémon glanced up at Ryan, who frowned and crossed his arms across his chest; he refused to move from this spot especially because of Nina's yelling. There was a beat of silence. Nina's voice once again drifted through the front window, her tone a lot angrier than before "I SAID _NOW!_" Sawyer coughed and then murmured dryly in response to his previous question "since she clearly wears the pants in this relationship," they both then followed after a reluctant Ryan back into the daycare center, the brown haired boy grumbling all the way.

**x-X-x**

"Honestly, you act like such a little kid with this attitude of yours." She frowned disdainfully at the boy as he sat cross legged on the floor, directly across from her, arms folded with an irritable scowl she was used to seeing by now, on his face. Nina grit her teeth and clenched her fists in annoyance at his attitude, she took her eyes off the brunette and glanced at the Pokémon littered around the nursery. Elekid and Pichu were playing with Chewy, having bonded with the older and more experienced electric type, the game involved them gathering a small amount of energy lightly shocking one another. Magby was curled up on one of the large throw pillows in the room, napping soundly, with its thumb stuck in its mouth. While Cleffa and Igglybuff were getting a piggyback ride from Ivysaur, the two babies giggled happily with laughter when he leaped or bounced around or tossed them up in the air with his vines and catching them. Sawyer seemed to be searching for something, because she kept glancing around the room and running out towards the front of the center. Seeing all the Pokémon interacting so peacefully with one another put a smile on her face, but only for a moment because she glanced at Ryan and saw his sour expression and it instantly deflated her mood and reminded her that she was in the middle of giving him a stern talking to. Nina crossed her arms and gave Ryan an annoyed look "all Leon asked was for us to watch these little guys for an hour and you go run outside to train! You'll have all the time in the world to train, the rest of the day in fact! There's no need for you to be a jerk and shirk your duties."

"Duties! What duties? You're the one who agreed to this, not me."

"So what, you could still be nice and help out!"

"Hey guys… I think—"

"Who says I even wanted to help out in the first place!"

"Guys, Smooch—"

"You're a real heartless jerk, you know that!"

"And you're a bossy little nag, you know that!"

"Jerk!"

"Nag!"

"GUYS!"

"WHAT!" Ryan and Nina shouted simultaneously and glanced at Sawyer with fire in their eyes, the purple mouse shrank back slightly at their stares, dully noting that all the baby Pokémon were huddling behind Ivysaur for cover, save for the sleeping Magby, who just snorted and rolled over in its sleep, just in case the two kids decided to turn their wrath on them. Sawyer coughed nervously before responding "Smoochum's missing. I've seen all the baby Pokémon except her. I even ran out front to see if she was there, but she's not out there or in the egg room." At the announcement of the baby gone missing, the tension between the two kids was defused and a wave of panic swept over Nina's face.

"M-Missing?"

Sawyer gave a tentative nod in response and Nina promptly began to freak out "Oh _no_! Whatdoido! Whatdoido!" She was up on her feet, pacing the room back and forth, eyes wild with panic as her hands clenched tightly at the beret on her head, the baby Pokémon pressed even closer against Ivysaur as they watched her freak out, Chewy eyed her worriedly "we promised Leon we'd watch the Pokémon while he was gone! No one said anything about Pokémon going _missing_!"

"For the record, _you_ promised Leon you'd watch the Pokémon while he was gone. _I_ had nothing to do with this."

"Not now Ryan, this is serious! I don't have time for your comments! I gotta find Smoochum! C'mon Chewy!"

"Pika!"

"If you leave to search for Smoochum, whose gonna watch the Pokémon? You did promise to watch them, right?" At his inquiry, Nina paused at the threshold of the nursery, with Chewy at her feet, turning back to glance at him briefly and then the Pokémon, who were peeking out curiously from behind Ivysaur.

". . ."

Ryan shook his head and shrugged at her silence, watching as she chewed her lip nervously while trying to think up a solution for the current problem at hand. "Hm, I _guess_ I could help you out," he smirked before continuing with an arrogant tone "by looking for Smoochum, while you stay here and watch the Pokémon, in case Leon just _happens_ so to come back and notices you not only let one of his Pokémon go AWOL, but left the rest unattended as well. He'd probably be really disappointed in you for letting something like this happen." Nina grit her teeth, glaring at Ryan and his smug tone, the haughty little snot was totally doing this on purpose and it sucked, because he had a point, someone had to stay and watch the Pokémon while the other went looking for Smoochum and Ryan seemed more than eager to get away from these baby Pokémon, though she wasn't sure why.

"I… I guess that does make a lot of sense." She admitted looking away and stepping back into the room, while Ryan grinned at her "glad you could see it my way. I'll be back with Smoochum in no time. Sawyer, come with me, Ivysaur you stay here with Nina and help her watch these guys, we'll be back soon." With that said, Ryan all but rushed out of the Daycare Center with Sawyer fast on his heels, leaving a confused Nina and placid Ivysaur, who turned towards the babies and gave them a reassuring smile, clearing their frightened expressions "Ivy saur saur saur."

**x-X-x**

"Any luck up there?"

"Nope. Find anything in the bushes?"

"No, but I know for a fact she's been through here."

"Really? How?" From her perch in one of the nearby trees, deciding to take the high route, while Ryan searched low. He had also sent Beedrill and Spearow to scout ahead. Sawyer peered down at the spot where Ryan stood and he pointed at the clump of bushes and several various trees and patches of grass that had a thin sheet of ice covering them "because with my brilliant deduction skills, I have surmised that the cluster of frozen leaves and greenery we see before us might lead us towards the subject," he stated with a grin, while Sawyer felt a bead of sweat drop down the back of her head as her eye twitched "how… clever of you," she darted down the trunk of the tree and caught up with Ryan, who followed the trail of random partially frozen objects that would ultimately lead them towards their goal.

"So, why don't you like baby Pokémon?"

"Huh?"

"It's just," Sawyer paused thoughtfully and met the boy's curious gaze "you seem so against watching these Pokémon for Leon, so I thought…" she trailed off, unsure of what to add.

Ryan frowned at the question, lacing his fingers behind his head lazily "it's not that I don't like the baby Pokémon, I mean they haven't whined or cried yet so that's great, they all seem like a nice bunch, but as I said before. I didn't come to the Daycare Center to baby sit, all we came there for, was to drop Smoochum off and be on our way, but apparently we were just at the right place at the wrong time and somehow got roped into doing grunt work."

"Grunt work?"

"It's a figure of speech." He explained, noting the slight confused look on her face.

"Dri drill!"

Beedrill suddenly floated in their line of vision, wings beating rapidly as he buzzed, his stingers pointing towards the area up ahead with urgency, causing Sawyer to quickly dart forward, ripping through a cluster of bushes "he's found her, says she's gotten in some trouble." Ryan sighed and ran after his two Pokémon they broke through the bushes and Spearow was already there, circling the area. Ryan quickly thanked both Beedrill and Spearow and then called both Pokémon back, he then glanced at the scene before him and was met with an interesting sight of Smoochum fighting tooth and nail against a obviously irritated male Nidoran, the two Pokémon seemed to have been exchanging some harsh blows, seeing as how both Pokémon seemed to be covered in a multitude of bruises "of course, not only does she run away, but she's in the middle of fighting with the slim chance of getting poisoned… as if this could get any worse."

"NIDOOOO."

"You _had_ to ask, didn't you?" Sawyer gave Ryan a flat stare as they both watched a Nidoking come stomping out of a clump of trees and bushes nearby, its eyes angrily locked on Smoochum, who didn't even flinch under the gargantuan beasts gaze "Nido nii do nido nidoran!" The Nidoran quickly ran to hide behind the length of its parent's tail, while Smoochum locked eyes with Nidoran and growled "Smoochum smooch smoo smoochum smooch," she pointed her stubby tanned hand at the Nidoran and then at a cluster of half frozen bushes "smoochum smooch smoochum!" Nidoking sneered at Smoochum in response.

From his spot on the sidelines, Ryan quickly turned to Sawyer for a translation, she nodded in response and began to explain "Nidoran is saying that Smoochum attacked it for no reason after he ate some of the berry's in that bush and Smoochum is saying that she was there first and he needs to find his own berries, that's why she attacked him, she also just called him a coward for running to his parent and not fighting his own battles."

"Whoa, Smoochum's got one heck of an attitude for a baby Pokémon."

"T-That's all you can say? Shouldn't we be like doing something? Y'know, _before_ it gets way out of hand?"

"In a minute," he waved her off and eyed the three Pokémon intently "I wanna see how Smoochum is gonna get through this." Sawyer practically choked out her next words as she looked up disbelievingly at him "se— you— you can't be serious!"

"I can be and I am, now pipe down. They obviously haven't noticed us yet and I'd like to keep it that way." Sawyer could only gape in response at her trainer's nonchalance.

"Nido. Nidoking nido nii."

"Nidoran! Nido nii!"

Nidoran then darted into the bushes behind Nidoking, disappearing from their sight. Ryan looked to Sawyer, who was still trying to wrap her finger around Ryan's ridiculous notion "He… Nidoking told Nidoran to go home and that he'll take care of Smoochum. Nidoran said okay."

"Smoooochum!" Once Nidoran was out of the area, Smoochum wasted no time in attacking, taking a deep breath, she fired a gust of chilling wind from her mouth, which hit Nidoking square in the chest, but it was ineffective and bounced off the giant's chest plate with ease, Nidoking even scratched at its chest as though the attack was nothing more than a light tickling sensation "Smooch…" Smoochum's expression darkened at being mocked so nonchalantly like that, so she charged at Nidoking, her small fist becoming encased in a glowing blue light, she leaped into the air and slammed her fist into Nidoking's chest plate, causing most his entire front, from the lower half of his jaw, to his biceps and elbows and down to the tips of his toes to become encased fully in ice.

"Smooch." Smoochum smirked as she landed on her feet, staring up at the now frozen stiff Drill Pokémon.

"Wow," Ryan whistled appreciatively at the display "not bad for a baby, Smoochum's got a strong Ice Punch there, to be able to freeze that much of Nidoking when she's this small. Just think of the power if she evolves, it'd double in strength and that Powder Snow attack from before wasn't that bad either, but she shouldn't be so quick to claim victory, the battle is far from over." His eyes narrowed on the small jerk of Nidoking's claws, that clearly indicated the battle was far from over.

"Ni-Ni-NIDO!" The ice encasing Nidoking's body shuddered briefly before small noticeable cracks began to appear, Smoochum froze and watched as the small cracks soon became larger and with a loud roar and a flex of muscle, Nidoking was free. Then with a sweep of its thick tail, it easily smacked Smoochum aside, with little to no effort, her small body slamming into the base of a tree trunk nearby but Nidoking didn't stop there, much like Smoochum before him, it followed up with another attack, opening his mouth and firing several poisonous darts at the Kiss Pokémon.

The attack hit her successfully and a purple static surrounded her body, she fell towards the ground with a loud thump and purple waves and indigo bubbles rose over her body, indicating she was being damaged by the poison "S-Smooch," she winced, slowly rising to stand and ignoring the pain she was feeling. Sawyer's eyes widened as she watched Smoochum pick herself off the ground, she couldn't stand watching the baby go through something like this, it was cruel and unusual "Ryan, we _have_ to help her! She looks like she's about to faint or something!"

"In a moment, this battle isn't over until she actually faint's, don't knock Smoochum down just yet, she's a fighter."

"But—" she began to protest and Ryan held up a hand to stop her.

"Just watch."

So she did watch. "Sm-Smooch…" Smoochum staggered to her feet, panting heavily, her eyes narrowed briefly, before becoming outline in purple, then Nidoking started to glow purple as well slowly, the hulking purple monster was lifted off the ground, Nidoking began to struggle and flail under the effects of Confusion. Sawyer could see how much of a strain it was for Smoochum to be doing this while being inflicted with poison and practically on her last legs, her body shook with exhaustion as Nidoking was lifted higher and higher into the air, until it floated above the tops of the trees "SmooCHUM!" With a harsh thrust of her palm, Nidoking was sent flying, where it would land, no one was sure.

"Told ya she's a fighter." Ryan smirked at Sawyer, who just gave him a weak smile in response, then her gaze turned back to Smoochum, who finally seemed to notice the duo and she somehow managed to shoot Ryan an infatuated smile, before promptly passing out from her injuries. There was a beat of silence between the two, then Ryan gathered Smoochum in his arms and began heading back towards the Daycare Center with Sawyer perched on his shoulder "well, at least since she's knocked out the poison won't affect her as much."

"Are you gonna heal her with that stuff you made from earlier?"

"After she wakes up, I'll give her some, that way it'll clear all the lingering toxins from her system." Ryan cradled the baby Pokémon in his arms "ah, who knew babies were such a handful."

**x-X-x**

"Special Delivery!"

"Oh! You've found her! W-What happened?" Nina had came running out the nursery, with Ivysaur and Chewy on her heels, grinning happily out of relief, as she not only had just finished putting all the other Pokemon to sleep, but hearing that Ryan made it back before Leon just brightened her mood even more. She froze however upon seeing the beaten and battered state of Smoochum in Ryan's arms.

"She got into a little altercation with a Nidoran and a Nidoking." He scratched his cheek and gave her a sheepish grin.

"_Little_? Ryan, she's covered all over in bruises and looks like she got into a whole lot more than a _little_ altercation."

"Okay, so maybe _little_ wouldn't be the right word, but the good news is, she beat the Nidoking!"

"You… you… YOU IDIOT!"

**BAM.**

Ryan did not see that punch coming.

"OW! What'd you hit me in the head for? Thank goodness for Ivysaur, because I would've totally dropped Smoochum on her head because of you!" Rubbing his aching head, Ryan scoffed "tch, and here you are always nagging me about the welfare of a Pokémon."

"You…" Nina's body shook with anger, her eyes were practically nothing but slits as she eyed the brown haired boy. He was still rubbing his head and adjusting his headband, which had slanted out of place due to her blow. Nina raised her hands and then wrapped them tightly around Ryan's unsuspecting neck "Imbecile! Did you really just let a baby Pokémon like Smoochum take on a full grown Nidoking and not even care about the **_consequences_**!"

Ryan winced at the high pitch her voice made when she said consequences and would have made a comment about it too, were he not currently trying to release the insanely tight grip Nina had on his windpipe "What is your problem!" She began to shake the brunette back and forth with all the strength she could muster "what in the _world_ would _possess_ you to let a **_baby_** Smoochum, take on _**A**_. _**FULL. GROWN. NIDOKING**!_" With every accentuation, she'd shake him roughly.

"Err… did I miss something?"

Standing in the middle of the entrance, looking about as lost as a Psyduck, was Leon. He had just come back from Eric's, with all the parts needed for him to fix his grandparent's healing machine and was met with an odd sight, of Nina in the midst of strangling Ryan, whose face was turning blue from lack of oxygen, his hands grabbing at her wrists in an attempt to pull her off, while all their Pokémon watch the scene with various worried expressions, ranging from fear, curiosity and sympathy and cradled protectively in Ivysaur's vines was a fainted Smoochum.

"Umm, how about I fix up the healing machine, heal Smoochum, and then you guys tell me just what in the world is going on." With that said, Leon quietly shuffled over towards the healing Machine, which was set up near the far right of the room. An awkward silence passed between the two kids as they gazed at one another, one through a rage induced haze and the other through an asphyxiated haze.

". . ."

**Thud.**

"Girl, you are insane!" Ryan choked out before clutching at his sore throat and gulping in all the oxygen he was previously denied.

"Hmpfh!" Nina just turned her nose up at the boy angrily and stormed off into the nursery to cool down.

The Pokémon just sat there.

**x-X-x**

"So Smoochum got away again and got into some major trouble?"

"Mhm, I'm sorry I couldn't keep a better eye on her. I didn't mean for this to happen." Nina glanced solemnly at the healing machine it glowed vibrantly with healing energies. Smoochum was healing up rather nicely, she had been in there for about 15 minutes now. "It's alright," Leon smiled and reached over, placing a hand on her shoulder, reassuring the girl "accidents happen and Smoochum is known to start trouble and wander off, so you did nothing wrong." He then stood up from his seat and entered the egg room, coming back out moments later with an egg resting in a simple blue egg case. The egg that was inside was a dull blue in coloration and had a few white spots on it.

"So, for being such a big help today, I want you to have this Nina."

Nina's eyes widened as Leon handed her the egg case, she took it hesitantly and looked up at him "a-are you sure? I mean, I didn't do much… and Ryan was the one who rescued Smoochum… so, I… I don't think I deserve something like this."

"Hey, if she won't take it, I'll gladly take it off her hands."

They both ignored Ryan's input and Leon hid a smile while he watched Nina shook Ryan a look that made his face lose its color "I insist, you did me a huge favor by helping out. I mean, you could have protested and declined the offer, but you stayed. Just to help an absolute stranger out with his problems, out of the goodness of your heart, you've got a good head on your shoulders Nina and your kindness will get you far, that's why I want you to have this egg to show my appreciation for watching the baby Pokémon and allowing me to finally fix my grandparent's machine."

Nina's cheeks began to turn pink from the complement and she looked away from Leon bashfully, clutching the egg against her chest "uhm… t-thank you for this then. I promise I'll take good care of the egg!"

"That's the spirit!"

_Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding._

The healing machine finally gave off a musical chime and the kids and their Pokémon watched as Leon released Smoochum from the machine, slowly her eyes opened and from her spot in Leon's arms, she blinked up at the three humans crowding around her "Smooch?"

"Are you feeling better? I've heard you caused a bit of trouble while I was away Smoochum."

"Smooch smoochum." Smoochum folded her arms and turned her head away from Leon at his statement, but when her eyes landed on Ryan, she perked up and leaped out of Leon's arms and latched herself onto the front of his shirt "Smoochum!"

"H-hey! Cut that out! Let go!"

"Smoooch!" Smoochum just smiled happily and nuzzled the front of Ryan's shirt, refusing to let go as the boy desperately tried to get the clingy baby off him "looks like someone's got a little admirer," Leon pointed out, with an amused smile on his face "Ryan, you are honestly the first trainer I've ever seen Smoochum so attached to, I don't know what you did, but she definitely likes you _a lot_."

"S-she likes me? That's why she keeps jumping on me and giving me weird looks, because she likes me?"

"Yep," he chuckled watching as Ryan still struggled to remove Smoochum from his shirt "Smoochum's been struck by the love bug."

"Well, that's just great," Ryan sighed and his attempts to pull Smoochum off slowed until halting "I've never had a Pokémon grow attracted to me before." He glanced down at Smoochum, who blinked back up at him "you really like me huh girl?" Smoochum's pudgy face broke out into a cute smile "Smooch!"

"Well… I guess that's okay, I like you too Smoochum, even if you are a bit clingy, that battling you did earlier was really cool, you have one powerful Ice Punch on your hands." Ryan lifted both his arms, folding one underneath the Kiss Pokémon to allow Smoochum a bit of comfort as she still clung to his front and the other reached up to pat her on the head. Smoochum's pink face turned a bright red as she flushed out of embarrassment, hiding her head bashfully in the folds of his shirt.

"Smooooch."

Smoochum's body suddenly began to glow and Ryan felt himself stiffen, while Leon and Nina's eyes widened. A bright translucent bluish white light covered Smoochum's entire form and her body and shape began to expand and change, going from a tiny and cute size, to a full figured purple faced Pokémon with large lips, lengthy blonde hair, white arms and purple gloves. A red gown now covered her features. "Jynnx jynx." Jynx, was now tall enough to wrap her arms fully around Ryan's form, the top of her head stopping just below his chin.

"S-Smoochum evolved!" Leon exclaimed pointing out the obvious, while Jynx continued to squeeze the life out of Ryan, the boy was laughing nervously as Jynx wrapped him up in an iron like vice and he made a futile attempt to pull her off. Nina watched the two with a small smile, before glancing at Leon "so, what are you going to do with Jynx now? Don't you usually keep the Pokémon around until someone adopts them?"

"Yeah, I do, but I think Jynx has already found her trainer..." The two then both watch with amusement as Jynx tried to plant a kiss on Ryan, but the brunette quickly flushed and managed to somehow slip from her grip and get away, this resulted in Ryan tripping over various object in the room, before stumbling outside, with the lovestruck Jynx, hot on his tail.

"C-Cut that out! JYYNX!"

"Jynx! Jynnx!"

**x-X-x**

The warm afternoon sun was hot on their backs as a cool breeze swept up between the two kids and the Daycare Center's grandson, the duo had decided that they had lollygagged long enough and it was time to get back to their travels. After getting Jynx to stop trying to assault Ryan with kisses, Leon had placed her into a Pokéball and insisted he take her, because she would obviously be miserable without him, he was hesitant at first, but eventually took Jynx and thanked Leon for the new addition to his team. Ryan then sent Ekans to Professor Oak's lab, in favor of Jynx.

"It was really nice meeting you Leon and thank you so much for the egg! I'll be sure to take good care of it!"

"Mhm, you two take care on your journey and if you guys are ever in the neighborhood, come and say hi!"

"We will! You take care as well! Bye!" Nina waved back at Leon with a wide smile, clutching her brand new egg in one arm, while Chewy was seated at her shoulder.

"Can we get going now? I'd like to get somewhere down the road before nightfall." Ryan was standing beside her, a minor irritated expression on his face, while Sawyer and Ivysaur were at his feet.

"Ugh, don't be rude Ryan, he just gave you a brand new Pokémon! The least you could do is be patient." Nina rolled her eyes at his irritation, but started walking nonetheless, causing the boy to fall into step as they walked down the route.

Their next stop was Vermilion City.

* * *

**I've gone back and made a few edits to like the first 4 chapters, nothing big, just my obvious grammatical errors, added a few minor things and I took out Nina's goal, which looking back on sounded really stupid, so its gone that's about it. Ryan is such a dick. I love him, I really do :) Nina's got an egg and Ryan is now the official the victim err owner of a lovesick Jynx who likes to start trouble and has the attitude _and_ power to back it up! What an interesting addition to his team. Wow, this is my longest chapter yet, at 9000+ words. Hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it.  
**


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